Back-to-back Wins on back-to-back nights for Blades

By Les Lazaruk

 

          The only negative Saturday for the Saskatoon Blades wasn’t securing a shutout for Ryan Kubic.

But, after surrendering Tanner Kaspick’s power play tally with 46 seconds remaining in the third period, the 19-year-old goaltender wasn’t chastened.

“Not really, no,” said the St. Andrews, Mb, product when asked if losing the “clean sheet” was a big deal to him or not. “It’s just important that we got the win. That’s the main thing, just getting wins.”

That’s “wins”…plural…and the Bridge City Bunch can now claim to have multiple victories in succession after rolling to a 4-1 triumph over the Brandon Wheat Kings Saturday at SaskTel Centre. It was the first back-to-back wins for the Blue and Gold…and they came on back-to-back nights after the Blades skated out of Swift Current with a 4-3 win on Friday.

Having said that, the missed shutout bid gnawed at Saskatoon head coach Dean Brockman a little.

“Unfortunately, we took a dumb penalty at the end there to break the shutout,” said Brockman. “(Kubic has) been pretty solid and that’s exactly what we wanted out of him. The guys have seen now that he’s a top-notch goalie.”

Kubic made 32 saves on 33 shots against Brandon…65 stops in the back-to-back victories on 69 shots, a .942 save percentage against the division rival Broncos and Wheaties. Brandon out-shot Saskatoon 33-23.

Overage centre Cam Hebig picked up Saturday where he left off Friday, opening the scoring on a 4-on-3 power play and adding a second goal to his first career WHL hat-trick Friday in Swift Current. Tyler Lees…with his second goal in as many games since coming back from a pre-season…and Chase Wouters also notched goals for the Bridge City Bunch, now 5-7-1 for the season as they head off on the road next week for three games in the Central Division.

Pacman Points – Hebig’s first goal was the 4,000th tally by the Blades in regular-season play in the 1,062 home games they have played at Saskatchewan Place/Credit Union Centre/SaskTel Centre since the facility opened in 1988. On February 9, 1988, Saskatoon edged Brandon 4-3 with Grant Tkachuk going down in history as the first Blades player to score in their new home building.

The Saturday victory ended a three-game home-ice losing streak for the Bridge City Bunch, in front of 3,058 fans. Their only previous SaskTel Centre triumph was September 30…5-4 over the Calgary Hitmen. The Blue and Gold are 2-5-0 at home so far this season.

The Blades finished the month of October with a 4-5-1 record. They’ll play 13 games in November…nine of them on the road where they are 3-2-1 so far.

The Wheat Kings have dropped three straight road games, their last away success coming in Calgary by a 5-3 score on October 8.

The Wheaties came into the game with the top power play in the WHL at 35.5%, but could only manage the late goal from Kaspick on five opportunities against Saskatoon, who had the 22nd-ranked penalty kill in the league at 66% coming into the contest.

The win for the Bridge City Bunch was their fourth straight in head-to-head meetings against Brandon. The last Wheat Kings victory over the Blue and Gold came December 17, 2016…a 3-2 decision at SaskTel Centre.

The Blades rallied in the faceoff circle to win 35 of 69 draws on the night. Hebig won 14 of 24 faceoff for Saskatoon while Kaspick was tops for the Wheat Kings with 16 wins in 31 faceoffs.

Connor Gutenberg led all individual players with seven shots on goal. The Wheaties’ Stelio Mattheos and Kale Clague, with five and four shots respectively, had more shots on goal than anyone on the Bridge City Bunch. Brad Goethals and Braylon Shmyr each had three shots on goal to lead the way for the Blue and Gold.

Right winger Michael Farren returned to the Blades lineup after missing three games with a Lower Body injury. Defenceman Jantzen Leslie was scratched. Caleb Fantillo (Upper Body), centre Brandon Machado (illness) and centre Logan Christensen (Upper Body) were sidelined again.

Brandon has three defenceman out of the lineup with Lower Body injuries…James Shearer, Daniel Bukac and Garrett Sambrook. Wingers Rylan Bettens and Cole Reinhardt were “Coaches Decisions.”