Tuesday night’s game at SaskTel Centre evoked memories from 30 years ago; pleasant for some, nightmarish for others.
About 30 years ago at the old Winnipeg Arena, there were vintage battles between the Wayne Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers and the over-matched Winnipeg Jets. For the purposes of Tuesday night, substitute Victoria Royals for Edmonton Oilers and Saskatoon Blades for Jets and a similar final score line to 1987, 7-2 for the visitors.
Back in those days, it wasn’t uncommon for the Jets to throw everything but the proverbial kitchen sink at the Edmonton net, only to be turned aside by Grant Fuhr. The shots would be 21-7, yet Winnipeg would trail 3-0 because they gave the Oilers odd-man chances and/or breakaways that the Oil would capitalize on.
It was that way Tuesday.
Griffen Outhouse was Fuhr in goal for Victoria and the Bridge City Bunch gave up several Grade A scoring chances to the Royals. They scored three times while the blue and gold had nothing to show on the scoreboard, despite holding a 16-11 advantage on the shot clock.
In the final analysis, Outhouse stopped 28 of 29 shots in the first two periods, then was given the third off having done his job in back-stopping Victoria to the 7-2 victory over the Bridge City Bunch.
“We’re definitely very happy,” said Royals Head Coach Dan Price following losses in Regina and Brandon to start four straight games against East Division opposition. “A big part (of the victory) was goaltending early. Definitely not a situation where the score reflected the game. Saskatoon played very well, had tons of chances, out-shot us by a pretty wide margin (40-26). We got some saves early that allowed us to get some traction and score a couple of timely goals.”
The B.C. Division and Western Conference leaders got three goals and an assist from Regan Nagy as Victoria improved to 10-3-1. Dante Hannoun and Tyler Soy each had a goal and an assist. Hannoun opened the scoring and Soy tallied on the power play. Matthew Phillips recorded a point for a 14th straight game, which is the number of contests the Royals have played so far this season. His short-handed marker needed a lengthy review after initially being waved off by referee Jason Bourdon. Former Kootenay ICE forward Jared Legien completed the goal-scoring for Victoria with Russian winger Yan Khomenko chipping in three assists, all on the Royals first period goals.
Josh Paterson and Dryden Michaud replied for the 3-7-1 Blades in front of 2,732 fans at SaskTel Centre.
“We talked about not giving up odd-man rushes before the game and that’s exactly what we did,” said third-year Saskatoon forward Paterson. “We let them capitalize on our mistakes and that’s just not what we wanted.”
Bridge City Bunch Assistant Coach Ryan Keller took it a few steps further in explaining why his club can’t continue allowing five goals per game. The Blades have allowed 55 goals in 11 outings to start the season).
“We don’t have Phillips, unfortunately, and some of those other guys over there (in the Victoria locker room),” stated Keller. “(We’d) like to get there one day for sure. But, at this point no, for us to be successful, that’s not our recipe.”
The blue and gold will attempt to end a three-game winless skid Friday in Swift Current while the Royals travel to Prince Albert Wednesday night.
Pacman Points – The goals from Michaud and Paterson leave the Blades with 3,999 regular-season goals scored over 1,061games played at SaskTel Centre (also known as Saskatchewan Place and Credit Union Centre) since the building opened in February, 1988. Saskatoon will attempt to hit the 4,000-goal milestone Saturday when the Brandon Wheat Kings pay a 7:05 visit.
The loss was the sixth straight in head-to-head play for the Blades against Victoria. Shortly after the Chilliwack Bruins moved to Vancouver Island in the summer of 2011, the Bridge City Bunch out-scored the Royals 9-6 at Credit Union Centre on January 21, 2012 in the first meeting between Saskatoon and Victoria since the Cougars were located in the B.C. capital in the spring of 1994. In the six straight setbacks to the Royals, the blue and gold have been out-scored 38-14.
All four goaltenders dressed for the game saw action. Rookie Dean McNabb played the third period for Victoria in a mop-up relief role for Outhouse. The Davidson, Sask. product stopped 10 of 11 shots. Blades starter Ryan Kubic was, mercifully, lifted after the fifth Royals goal at 11:53 of the second period, stopping nine of 14 shots. Joel Grzybowski came on and made 10 stops on 12 shots.
Earlier Tuesday, the Blades snipped their roster by one as rookie right winger Matt Mosher was sent to Prince George for a ninth-round pick in the 2019 Bantam Draft. The move leaves the Blades with 24 players. Mosher appeared in just one game this season after seeing action in three games last year. He had no points.
Also on Tuesday, centre Kirby Dach and goaltender Nolan Maier found out they will both suit up for Team Canada Black at next month’s World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in B.C. That squad will be coached by Regina assistant and former Saskatoon sniper Dave Struch. Dach is the only 2001-born player on the Saskatoon roster while Maier is toiling with the Yorkton Terriers of the SJHL.
For the fourth-straight game, the Bridge City Bunch held the advantage over their opposition in both, the faceoff circle and on the shot clock. On Tuesday. The blue and gold won 30-of-52 faceoffs with 20-year-old veteran Cam Hebig leading the way individually, once again, winning 13 of 18 draws. Sophomore Eric Florchuk was best at the dot for the Royals, claiming possession on nine of 16 faceoffs.
Hebig topped the Blades with five shots, while Nagy was tops amongst all players on both teams, scoring three times on seven shots on goal for Victoria.
The Blades scratched defenceman Jantzen Leslie in addition to their three injured players. Right winger Michael Farren was sidelined with a lower-body injury, while forwards Logan Christensen and Tyler Lees were out with upper-body injuries. Saskatoon has lost 29 man-games due to injuries.
The Royals travelling party includes only 21 players with 18-year-old defenceman Jeremy Masella, a Phoenix native, the only scratch. Freshman, 16-year-old right winger Tarun Fizer is sidelined on a week-to-week basis with an upper body injury.
