Winterhawks overcome stellar night by Blades’ Gardner

Portland rallies to 4-3 victory after tiebreaking shootout

The Winterhawks celebrate their win on Wednesday night.

Evan Gardner almost made off with highway robbery against the Portland Winterhawks.

On Wednesday night playing before 3,797 spectators at the SaskTel Centre, Gardner’s Saskatoon Blades took a 3-1 lead on the Portland Winterhawks at the 4:06 mark of the second period in a WHL regular season clash. With 15:21 remaining in the frame, the shots on goal between the two teams was even at 17-17.

At that point, the Winterhawks hit another gear, but Gardner, who is the Blades star 18-year-old sophomore netminder, still almost stole a victory for his club against the traditionally talented foe from the U.S. Division. The visitors outshot the host side 12-4 for the rest of that frame only to see the Blades head into the second intermission holding their 3-1 advantage due to the stellar play of Gardner.

Evan Gardner stopped 42 shots in regulation and overtime.

The Winterhawks continued their pressure in the third holding a 14-2 edge in shots on goal. They finally scored twice inside the final five minutes of the frame to force a 3-3 tie and overtime.

After the scoreless three-versus-three extra time session, the first two shooters Portland sent out in the tiebreaking shootout scored. That allowed the Winterhawks to claim the tiebreaking shootout 2-0 and the overall game itself 4-3.

Gardner turned away 42 shots through regulation and overtime to give the Blades a chance to win. He was unable to foil Winterhawks star offensive-defenceman Tyson Jugnauth and star captain Kyle Chyzowski in the shootout.

Josh Zakreski scored the Winterhawks first goal on Wednesday.

The Winterhawks improved to 24-15-2-1 with the win to remain third in the U.S. Division.

The Blades saw their record move to 22-14-2-3 to remain first in the East Division sitting four standings points ahead of the Prince Albert Raiders (21-15-3) and the Brandon Wheat Kings (20-13-3-2). The Raiders have two games in hand on the Blades, and the Wheat Kings and three games in hand on the Saskatoon side.

Wednesday’s game marked the first time the Blades played at home since the WHL trade deadline this past Thursday at 7 p.m. Saskatchewan time. Leading up to the deadline, the Blades were active making deals that saw them trade long time veteran stars in Brandon Lisowsky and Tanner Molendyk.

Cooper Williams had the Blades first goal on Wednesday.

The Blades worked on replenishing WHL Prospects Draft capital that was given up during a load up last season. In that 2023-24 campaign, the Blades finished with a 50-13-2-3 mark to top the WHL’s overall standings. In the post-season, the Blades advanced to the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series and fell in an epic seven-game set that saw six contests go to overtime to the eventual WHL champion Moose Jaw Warriors.

Along with acquiring draft selections, the Blades also picked up some younger players who have skill and some great potential to reach in future campaigns. Wednesday’s clash with the Winterhawks marked the first time Blades played at home with a fairly new looking lineup.

Hayden Harsanyi had a power-play goal for the Blades.

The Winterhawks would proceed to get the jump on the Blades scoring just 43 seconds into the contest. Winterhawks 18-year-old standout right-winger and Saskatoon product Josh Zakreski got the puck at the top of the left faceoff circle and wired a shot past Gardner for the game’s opening marker.

Just 58 seconds later, the Blades evened the score at 1-1, when 16-year-old rookie centre Cooper Williams banged home a puck from the front of Portland net that came from a shot taken by linemate Hunter Laing. Laing is one of the Blades recent trade acquisitions.

Rowan Calvert scored a power-play goal for the Blades.

The Blades proceeded to jump ahead 2-1 just under five minutes later scoring on their first power-play chance of the night. A shot taken by Blades standout 19-year-old right-winger Tyler Parr rebounded out to centre Hayden Harsanyi, who recently turned 18-years-old, in the left slot. Harsanyi potted the puck into an empty cage to give the Blades the lead.

Another recent trade acquisition by the Blades, Harsanyi had two goals and two assists in three games he suited for with the Saskatoon side.

At the 4:06 mark of the second, the Blades pushed their advantage out to 3-1 scoring a beauty for their second power-play mark of the contest. On a break into the Portland zone, Blades 20-year-old offensive-defenceman Grayden Siepmann got the puck down the right wing to 20-year-old left-winger Tanner Scott, who is a veteran recent trade acquisition.

Frantisek Dej (#32) had a fight for the Blades.

Scott passed the puck across the face of the Portland net to Blades standout 19-year-old left-winger Rowan Calvert. Calvert tapped home his 16^th goal of the campaign to give the host side their two-goal edge. Siepmann picked up his second assist of the contest on Calvert’s goal.

A short time after Calvert’s tally, Blades import centre Frantisek Dej, who was making his debut with the team, engaged in a short but spirited fight with Chyzowski. Dej landed a number of hard shots getting the edge in the bout.

At that point in time, the Blades were playing fairly even up with their Winterhawks foes. It appeared Saskatoon could potentially beat the Portland side for the first time since December 3, 2017, when the Blades blanked the Winterhawks 4-0 in Portland.

On Wednesday night, the Winterhawks found another gear for the duration of the contest after falling behind 3-1. Gardner had to put on the superhero cape in order to keep the Winterhawks at bay.

Tyson Jugnauth had the Winterhawks second goal on Wednesday.

In the third, Gardner made one of his best saves of the night making a sliding pad stop to deny Winterhawks 17-year-old centre Kyle McDonough at the left side of the Saskatoon net.

For the longest time, it looked like Gardner was going to steal the game. With 4:33 remaining in the third period, the Winterhawks struck on the power play on an outstanding individual effort by Jugnauth. Jugnauth blasted down the right wing on a rush into the Saskatoon zone, cut across the front of the Blades net and put a backhand shot between the legs of Gardner to trim the host side’s lead to 3-2.

Jugnauth’s tally came on his squad’s 40^th shot on goal in the contest. He also leads the WHL in defenceman scoring with 58 points coming off 11 goals and 47 assists to go with a plus-11 rating in the plus-minus department.

Ryan Miller scored the equalizer for the Winterhawks.

With 2:42 remaining in the third, Chyzowski had the puck in the left corner of the Saskatoon zone. He put a backhand pass into the middle of the left faceoff circle to 17-year-old right-winger Ryan Miller.

Miller wired home a shot to even the score at 3-3 to force overtime. His tally came on the Winterhawks 42^nd shot on goal in the contest.

While the Winterhawks were carrying all the momentum, the Blades almost won the game in overtime. On a rush into the Portland zone with just over a minute remaining in the extra session, Calvert found himself alone at the left side of the Winterhawks net after receiving the puck on a backdoor pass.

Grayden Siepmann had a pair of assists for the Blades.

Calvert put a shot on net, but it was turned away by Winterhawks import netminder Ondrej Stebetak, who slid across the crease to make a blocker stop. That set the stage for the Winterhawks to take it in the tiebreaking shootout.

Stebetak stopped 22 shots over 65 minutes and both shooters he faced in the shootout to pick up the win in net for the Winterhawks.

The victory allows the Winterhawks to head into their next game on a high note. They also get back at it on Friday when they travel to Moose Jaw to take on the 10-25-4-2 Warriors (7 p.m., Moose Jaw Events Centre).

Now winless in three games, the Blades also return to action on Friday when they host the 15-21-3-2 Red Deer Rebels (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Winterhawks are all smiles after their win on Wednesday.

On Wednesday night, the Blades new look lineup showed flashes of potential. They will have better nights ahead.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.