Blades’ Maier equals WHL career wins record

Netminder makes 20 saves in 4-0 victory over Tigers

Nolan Maier tied the WHL regular season career wins record at 120.

It was a terrific Tuesday night in Medicine Hat for Nolan Maier.

The Saskatoon Blades star overage netminder made 20 saves in a 4-0 win over the host Tigers before 1,880 spectators at Co-Op Place. With the win, Maier equals the WHL record for career regular season goaltending victories at 120.

Maier shares the career goaltending wins mark with Corey Hirsch and Tyson Sexsmith.

Hirsch picked up his 120 victories playing four seasons with the Kamloops Blazers from 1988 to 1992. Sexsmith collected his 120 wins over five seasons with the Vancouver Giants from 2005 to 2009. He also had one non-decision relief appearance for the Medicine Hat Tigers late in the 2004-05 campaign.

Maier entered Tuesday’s action tied with Jordan Papirny for second on the WHL’s all-time career regular season wins list with 119 victories. Papirny picked up his 119 career regular season wins playing five seasons in the WHL from 2012 to 2017 with the Brandon Wheat Kings and the Swift Current Broncos.

Maier joined the Blades on a full-time basis as a 16-year-old rookie in November of 2017. The Yorkton, Sask., product has appeared in 213 career regular season games with the Blades posting a 120-71-18 record, a 2.90 goals against average, a .905 save percentage and 11 shutouts.

Along with those statistics, Maier has played 12,429 career minutes in goal for the Blades and made 5,702 career saves.

Maier’s career shutout, games played, minutes played and saves totals are all Blades franchise records.

Kyle Crnkovic had a goal and an assist on Tuesday.

In Tuesday’s clash with the Tigers, the Blades netted their first goal with 1:41 remaining in the first period, when defenceman Ryan Nolan and star left-winger Kyle Crnkovic teamed up to spring standout right-winger Brandon Lisowsky on a breakaway.

Lisowsky snapped home his 33^rd goal of the season stick side on Tigers 18-year-old netminder Beckett Langkow for the 1-0 lead.

At the 8:28 mark of the second, Blades rookie import right-winger Egor Sidorov roof home his 22^nd tally of the season to the top right corner of the Medicine Hat net to give the Blades a 2-0 advantage. Sidorov’s scoring chance on his goal came after he collected the rebound from a shot taken by Nolan.

Just 54 seconds later, Blades 19-year-old right-winger Noah Boyko backhanded home a rebound from his own close in first shot to extend Saskatoon’s advantage to 3-0.

Inside the final two minutes of the second, Maier denied Tigers left-winger Oren Shtrom on a drive from the right slot. The rebound went to Shtrom’s linemate in Noah Danielson, but Maier’s sprawling right pad stuffed Danielson’s shot attempt.

Early in the third, Tigers 16-year-old rookie left-winger Andrew Basha wired a shot off the post of the Saskatoon goal. A short time later, Maier denied Tigers 17-year-old rookie left-winger Steven Arp on a backhand shot from the front of the Saskatoon net.

The Blades rounded out the 4-0 final in their favour at the 6:39 mark of the third. Nolan sprang Crnkovic on a breakaway on a long flip stretch pass, and Crnkovic backhanded home his 38^th tally of the season.

Langkow turned away 20 shots to take the setback in goal for the Tigers (11-49-3-1).

Brandon Lisowsky scored for the Blades on Tuesday.

The Tigers are locked into finish last in the entire WHL and will continue to play out the string on Friday, when they travel to Brandon to take on the Wheat Kings (7 p.m. local time, Westman Place).

With the win, the Blades improve to 36-25-3-1 to remain in contention to get home ice advantage for a first round playoff series.

They trail the 36-23-3-2 Moose Jaw Warriors by one point for fourth place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and the right to have home ice advantage in the first round of the post-season. Moose Jaw has a game in hand on Saskatoon.

The Wheat Kings jumped back into contention for that fourth place spot after winning their third straight game downing the visiting Regina Pats 5-4 at Westman Place on Tuesday night. Brandon improved to 33-25-3-2 to continue to hold sixth place in the conference six points behind Moose Jaw and five points behind Saskatoon.

The Wheat Kings have one game in hand on the Warriors and two games in hand on the Blades.

Saskatoon still has six regulars on the injury list. Defenceman and captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere is out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury.

Overage star centre Tristen Robins, who is the Blades captain for the rest of the current season, is out day to day with an upper body injury and the same goes for veteran centre Josh Pillar and overage defenceman Rhett Rhinehart.

Rookie centre Lukas Hansen is week-to-week with an upper body injury, and utility player Spencer Shugrue was out day to day with a lower body injury.

Egor Sidorov scored for the Blades on Tuesday.

The Blades return to action on Wednesday, when they travel to Lethbridge to take on the 29-30-3-1 Hurricanes (7 p.m. local time, Enmax 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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Tigers’ Wiesblatt sinks Raiders with first career WHL hat trick

Medicine Hat halts four-game skid with 6-4 win

Oasiz Wiesblatt (#7) reacts to scoring his hat trick goal.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Oasiz Wiesblatt had his best WHL outing to date in the rink his older brother has had numerous big games in.

On Saturday night, the 17-year-old left-winger scored his first career hat trick in the major junior ranks to power his Medicine Hat Tigers to a 6-4 regular season victory over the host Prince Albert Raiders before 2,155 spectators at the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre.

With the Tigers and Raiders locked in a 4-4 tie after 40 minutes, Wiesblatt scored his second of the night on a perfectly executed two-on-on break to put the visitors in front 5-4.

Oasiz Wiesblatt scored his first career WHL hat trick on Saturday.

Tigers 19-year-old right-winger Brendan Lee broke down the left wing of the Prince Albert zone on the two-on-rush and fed a pass across the front of the Raiders net to Wiesblatt. Wiesblatt quickly converted that pass knocking home a goal past a sprawling Raiders import netminder Tikhon Chaika to give the Tigers a one-goal edge at the 3:33 mark of the third.

The Raiders responded by pressing hard for the equalizer, but Wiesblatt sealed the win for the Tigers scoring his hat trick goal into an empty net with 1:31 remaining in the third to round out the 6-4 final.

The win allowed the Tigers, who are having a rare rebuilding campaign and sit last overall in the WHL, to end a four game losing streak and improve to 8-25-3-1. One night earlier, the Tigers dropped a 9-2 decision to the Blades in Saskatoon.

The Tigers celebrate Oasiz Wiesblatt’s first goal on Saturday.

The Raiders fell to 15-21-1-1 having lost their third in a row.

Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said the outcome of Saturday’s clash with the Tigers was disappointing for his side.

“Obviously, we played a team below us in the standings, and we are fighting for points when we can get them,” said Habscheid. “Give credit to them.

“You can tell they lost 9-2 the other night, because they came in with a purpose. They were hungry. They were more hungry than us early for sure.

“We missed some assignments on some goals. Some goals went in that I didn’t like, and we let the score go.”

Wiesblatt seemed focus on having a good night in the rink his older brother Ozzy calls home. Ozzy is a star 19-year-old centre for the Raiders, who helped them win a WHL championship in 2019.

Evan Herman had two goals and an assist for the Raiders.

Unfortunately for the Raiders, Ozzy missed third straight contest after being injured in Prince Albert’s 7-3 victory over the Rebel in Red Deer this past Monday. He was injured in the second period of that contest after being on the receiving end of a rough hit from Rebels defenceman Christoffer Sedoff.

Sedoff was given a major penalty for interference and a game misconduct on the play and later received a one-game suspension from the WHL office.

As for Oasiz Wiesblatt, he turned heads early on Saturday scoring a goal on a sick looking play to give the Tigers a 1-0 edge at the 11:58 mark of the first period.

With the Tigers working in the offensive zone, center Noah Danielson made a smart pass to Wiesblatt to get him in alone coming up the right side of the Prince Albert goal.

Brendan Lee had a goal and an assist for the Tigers.

Wiesblatt went forehand to backhand and put a home a backhanded shot flying thru the air after getting upended by Raiders veteran star defenceman Nolan Allan.

The Raiders proceeded to even things up at 1-1 just under four minutes later when centre Evan Herman roofed home a power-play goal from the left wall.

The two sides went full out playing firewagon 1980s style hockey in the second period.

Lee scored at the 4:03 mark to put the Tigers up 2-1. Just 18 seconds after that tally, Herman netted his second of the contest to even the score at 2-2.

Raiders left-winger Zachary Wilson put the host side up 3-2 at the 6:04 mark of the second, and Tigers 19-year-old centre Noah Danielson evened things up at 3-3 at the 11:03 mark.

Zachary Wilson scored for the Raiders on Saturday.

With 3:06 remaining in the second, Raiders centre Harrison Lodewyk stole the puck from a Tigers defenceman and scored to put the Raiders up 4-3 with a shot close in at the left side of the Medicine Hat goal.

Tigers Russian import defenceman Gleb Ivanov tallied with a point shot to even the contest at 4-4 heading into the second intermission.

Habscheid thought his team played a little too loose over large stretches of Saturday’s outing.

“We just played (crappy) for a lot of the game,” said Habscheid. “Our structure, I don’t know what out structure was, because there wasn’t much of it.

Members of the Raiders and Tigers engage in a scrum.

“We cheated on the game early. That was disappointing, because we talked about that this morning. We talked about the trap (game) and about looking past and all those things.

“We just cheated the game at home, and we paid for it.”

Following the goal gusher in the second, the stage was set for Wiesblatt to score twice in the third to give the Tigers their second win in three meetings with the Raiders this season.

Herman said the equalizer the Tigers scored late in the second and Wiesblatt’s go-ahead tally early in the third tilted the contest in favour of the visitors.

“The game is about ups and downs,” said Herman, who had an assist to go along with his two goals. “We have to stay as level headed as we can throughout the whole game, and ultimately at the end find a way to end.

Carson Latimer fires a shot on goal for the Raiders.

“Good teams find ways to win. Our culture here is a winning culture. That is what the Raiders are.

“We really look to protect that. We look to do that every night.”

Chaika turned away 21-of-26 shot to take the setback in net for the Raiders. Garin Bjorklund stopped 31 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Tigers.

The Raiders return to action on Tuesday when they travel to Regina to face the Pats (7 p.m., Brandt Centre).

The Tigers also get back at it on Tuesday when they host the Saskatoon Blades (7 p.m. local time, Co-op Place).

Going forward, Herman said Saturday’s setback should serve as a reminder for his Raiders that they can’t take team in the WHL lightly.

The Tigers celebrate their victory on Saturday.

“We have to be ready to play every night,” said Herman. “This is a good league.

“There are no bad teams in this league. I think next time we need to just be ready.”

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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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.