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| Evan Gardner made 33 saves in net for the Blades on Wednesday. |
On Wednesday, the star netminder made 33 saves to backstop the Blades to a 3-1 victory in a regular season clash over the host Wheat Kings before 2,902 spectators at Westoba Place in Brandon. Gardner, who turned 19 in January, has won his last six straight starts.
He also signed three-year NHL entry-level contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. The Blue Jackets selected Gardner, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 177 pound, in the second round and 60th overall in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.
Thanks to his efforts, the Blades, who have won their last three straight games, improved to 37-22-3-4 to return to the top of the East Division. They lead their archrivals the Prince Albert Raiders (37-23-5-1) by one standings point and hold a two point edge over the Wheat Kings, who fell to 36-23-4-3. All three of those squads each have two games remaining on their respective regular season schedules.
The Blades and Raiders close their respective regular season playing a home-and-home series against each other. The two sides go at it Friday in Saskatoon (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre) and Saturday in Prince Albert (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).
The winner of Friday’s encounter will sit first in the East Division heading into action on Saturday. The Blades are expecting to draw over 10,000 spectators for Friday’s clash.
The Wheat Kings conclude their slate with a home-and-home series against the Regina Pats (16-42-5-3). Those two teams play Friday in Brandon (7 p.m. local time, Westoba Place) and Saturday in Regina (6 p.m., Brandt Centre). Brandon needs to win both of those contests to have a chance to finish first in the East Division.
The Wheat Kings have won their respective regular season series with the Blades and Raiders. If Brandon finishes tied in wins and standings points with either or both of Saskatoon and Prince Albert, the Wheat Kings will take the standings tiebreaker in that instance.
Wednesday’s battle between the Blades and Wheat Kings was a fairly tight checking affair. The two sides played through a scoreless opening frame with Blades standout 19-year-old left-winger Rowan Calvert nailing the post with a shot inside the final minute of the stanza.
Early in the second, Wheat Kings 20-year-old star right-winger Marcus Nguyen put a backhand shot off the crossbar of the Saskatoon net.
Saskatoon broke through on the scoreboard at the 8:15 mark of the second. Import rookie left-winger David Lewandowski circled around the right side of the Brandon zone holding off a defender and fired home a shot through a screen to put the visitors up 1-0.
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| Rowan Calvert scored for the Blades on Wednesday. |
During a scramble on the Saskatoon zone, Day cross-checked McQueen accidentally into Gardner. Day saw McQueen knock Gardner and then went after the Brandon forward.
McQueen was given a fighting major, while Day was given a minor for instigating, a major for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct. Working on that ensuing power play early in the third, Wheat Kings standout 18-year-old centre Jordan Gavin wired a shot off the post.
Once the Brandon power play came to an end, the Blades jumped ahead 2-0 at the 7:19 mark of the third, when Calvert tucked in his 24th goal of the season with a bad angle shot just above the icing line to the left side of the Wheat Kings net.
The Wheat Kings didn’t go away. With 8:13 remaining in the third, Wheat Kings 20-year-old offensive-defenceman Luke Shipley wired a midrange shot through a screen for his 18th tally of the campaign to cut the Blades lead to 2-1. Wheat Kings 16-year-old rookie centre Jaxon Jacobson stole the puck working the forecheck deep in the Saskatoon zone, and he got the puck to Gavin. Gavin setup Shipley for his goal-scoring shot.
Inside the final two minutes of the third with Brandon having pulled star 19-year-old netminder Carson Bjarnason for an extra attacker, Shipley wired a shot off the post of the Saskatoon goal.
Just moments after that missed chance, Lewandowski potted a long range empty-net goal from the left side boards beside the faceoff circle in the Saskatoon zone to seal the 3-1 victory for the visiting Blades. That tally was the second of the contest for Lewandowski and his 14th marker of the campaign.
Bjarnason turned away 24-of-26 shots to take the setback in goal for the Wheat Kings.
Last season, 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.
Going into the current campaign, the Blades weren’t expected to challenge for first in the division. They occupied first place for most of the first half of the regular season.
Leading up the WHL’s trade deadline on January 9, the Blades unloaded stars Brandon Lisowsky, Tanner Molendyk and Ben Riche to stock up on draft capital and add solid younger players. The Blades dealt a lot of high draft selections during a load up last season.
Saskatoon fell out of top spot in the East Division in late January. The Blades weren’t expected to be sitting at the top of the division with two regular season games remaining on their schedule.
Now, they will try to conclude a heated three team race with what would be a surprise division title.
Hitmen’s Hauser gets career wins record
On Wednesday night, the star netminder, who turned 21 in January, made 21 saves to backstop his Calgary Hitmen to a 5-1 victory over the visiting Red Deer Rebels before 2,573 spectators at the Scotiabank Saddledome. The triumph allowed Hauser to move alone to the top of the WHL’s career regular season goaltending wins list with 123 victories.
Hauser had been tied for top spot at 122 wins with Nolan Maier, who played his entire WHL career with the Saskatoon Blades from 2017 to 2022.
“It feels awesome,” said Hauser to the WHL’s director of public relations and brand communications Taylor Rocca. “I could stand here for hours listing the people I can thank for putting me in this position.
“I’m super grateful for this team, this organization and every team I’ve been on in the past. To share (the record) with this group – these guys play so well in front of me every night. They made it special for me tonight, and it was awesome.”
Hauser, who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 166 pounds, started his WHL career playing for the Winnipeg Ice during the circuit’s abbreviated campaign in 2021. The Ice played in a bubble environment at the Brandt Centre in Regina due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
He moved with the Ice franchise when it relocated to Wenatchee, Washington, to become the Wenatchee Wild at the start of the 2023-24 campaign. On January 2, Hauser was dealt to the Hitmen in a blockbuster trade.
Hauser, who is a Chestermere, Alta., product, has appeared in 175 career WHL regular season contests posting a 123-36-9 record, a 2.59 goals against average, a .910 save percentage and 17 shutouts. In combined action with both the Wild and Hitmen this season, Hauser has posted a 28-13-3 record, a 2.57 goals against average, a .912 save percentage and five shutouts.
The Hitmen did their best to ensure Hauser wouldn’t be denied the record on Wednesday. Carson Wetsch and Hunter Aura netted singles in the first period to give Calgary a 2-0 lead. Brandon Gorzynski, Sawyer Mynio and Ethan Moore potted singles in the second period to push the Hitmen’s advantage out to 5-0.
Samuel Drancak tallied for the Rebels in the third to round out the game’s scoring.
Hitmen star right-winger Oliver Tulk collected a pair of assists to hit the 100-point barrier in one regular season for the first time in his WHL career. Tulk, who turned 20 in January, has recorded 38 goals and 62 assists for 100 points to go with a plus-44 rating in the plus-minus department in 63 games with the Hitmen this season.
Peyton Shore turned away 25 shots to take the setback in net for the Rebels, who fell to 26-32-6-2 as they play out the string in 2024-25.
The win allowed the Hitmen to improve to 44-16-3-3. Their 94 standings points ties the Medicine Hat Tigers (45-17-3-1) for top spot in the Central Division and the Eastern Conference. The Tigers hold the standing tiebreaker due to having more wins. Both clubs have two games remaining on their respective regular season schedules.
The Hitmen and Rebels go at it again on Saturday in Red Deer (7 p.m. local time, Peavey Mart Centrium). The Tigers are also in action on Saturday as they host the rival Lethbridge Hurricanes (7 p.m. local time, Co-op Place).
The Hitmen and Tigers conclude their respective regular season slates playing each other on Sunday in Calgary (5 p.m. local time, Scotiabank Saddledome).
The Rebels conclude their 2024-25 campaign on Sunday traveling to Edmonton to take on the Oil Kings (4 p.m. local time, Rogers Place).
Royals jump to top of B.C. Division
On Wednesday, the Royals downed the host Rockets in Kelowna 5-3 before 3,451 spectators at Prospera Place. The Rockets took a 2-0 lead in the second period before the Royals rolled off three straight tallies to take a 3-2 edge into the second intermission.
Kelowna scored the equalizer early in the third to force a 3-3 tie, but the Royals netted the contest’s final two markers to pull out the two-goal victory.
Cole Reschny led the way for the Royals with two goals and one assist. Brandon Lisowsky, Reggie Newman and Kenta Isogai all netted singles for Victoria. Isogai tallied into an empty net.
Hiroki Gojsic, Levi Benson and Jakub Stancl replied with singles for the Rockets.
Jayden Kraus stopped 30 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Royals. Rhett Stoesser turned away 32-of-36 shots to take the setback in net of the Rockets.
With the win, the Royals improve to 39-17-3-7 to hold a lead of two standings points over the Prince George Cougars (40-20-4-2) for first in the B.C. Division. Both squads conclude their respective regular season schedules playing each other twice in Prince George. They go at it 7 p.m. local time Friday and 6 p.m. local time Saturday at the CN Centre.
The Rockets have lost 10 straight games to fall to 17-43-4-2 to sit in the basement of the Western Conference. They are playing out the string and have two games remaining on their regular season slate.
The Rockets host the Kamloops Blazers on Saturday (6 p.m. local time, Prospera Place) and head on the road Sunday to take on the Vancouver Giants in Langley, B.C., (4 p.m. local time, Langley Events Centre).
If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
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