By Les Lazaruk
Please excuse the tennis references tonight.
The Saskatoon Blades held serve Wednesday and have put pressure on the Prince Albert Raiders to do the same on Thursday or else a break will cause some separation in their match.
Loosely translated, the Bridge City Bunch won their 13th consecutive home game over P.A. at SaskTel Centre, doubling the Raiders 4-2 in front of 3,395 fans. In doing so, the blue and gold moved two points ahead of Prince Albert into the eighth and final playoff spot in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with the back end of the team’s post-Christmas home-and-home series slated for Thursday at the Art Hauser Centre.
Cam Hebig’s second goal of the night, at 12:16 of the second period, snapped a 2-2 tie as the Blades won for the fifth time in their last six games and improved their overall record to 16-17-3 for 35 points. That’s tied with Regina after the Pats lost 5-3 in Brandon Wednesday. The 13-15-7 Raiders have 33 points and are in the East Division basement for the first time this season.
Josh Paterson and defenceman Jackson Caller also tallied for Saskatoon in the see-saw affair. The Bridge City Bunch jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half of the first period, only to have Brett Leason and Devon Skoleski score 38 seconds apart to knot the score before the opening frame was over.
The pressure is on P.A. to respond Thursday. They’ve won their last four home games over the Blades. In fact, the last six head-to-head meetings on back-to-back nights between the Raiders and Saskatoon has seen the teams split with home-ice triumphs.
“Jerome (fellow Blades assistant coach Engele) likes to say, ‘put on your big boy pants.’ It’s one of those buildings, I’ve never taken a measuring tape out, but I would say with some certainty, that it’s smaller (than regulation),” said Bridge City Bunch Assistant Coach Ryan Keller about the Raiders’ home rink. “You’ve got to come ready to play. You’ve got to come ready to compete and you can’t play on the end of your stick and try to reach for pucks all night. You’ve got to get over top of them, win one-on-one battles.”
After Wednesday, the Blades lead 2-1 in the 2017-18 set of games against Prince Albert and there has yet to be a service break.
Pacman Points – Hebig’s first goal gave him 185 points in his WHL career, all with Saskatoon, moving the 20-year-old past Wes George (1974-77) into 59th place on the all-time Blades’ franchise points list. His second goal pushed him into a tie for 57th place with Wacey Rabbit (2001-05) and Kevin Tendler (1977-79). Just ahead in 56th place, with 187 points, is present-day Kelowna Rockets’ president and general manager Bruce Hamilton (1974-76) while tied for 53rd place with 188 points is the trio of Garett Bembridge (1997-2000), Dean Holoein (1985-89) and Andy MacIntyre (1991-93).
The two-goal game was the eighth multi-goal game of the season for Saskatoon product Hebig as well as the 16th multi-point game. Fellow overage forward Braylon Shmyr recorded his 10th multi-point game of the season by chipping in three assists for the blue and gold.
The setback was the fifth straight on the road for the Raiders, during which they’ve been out-scored 18-10 since their last road success on Dec. 1 in Calgary.
There was concern for the Blades when Kirby Dach left the game in the first period. The 16-year-old rookie was seen leaving the arena with one of his arms in a sling. There has been no official word on what the injury was that the second overall pick in the 2016 WHL Bantam Draft sustained.
Saskatoon scratched defenceman Libor Hajek (Team Czech Republic, World Junior Championship), right winger Caleb Fantillo (lower body) and left winger Dryden Michaud (upper body). In addition, a pair of Chestermere, Alta., products, and affiliate call-ups, were left out of the line-up by Bridge City Bunch Head Coach Dean Brockman in left winger Kyle Crnkovic and defenceman Majid Kaddoura.
Prince Albert is also without a blue liner playing for the Czech Republic at the World Juniors in Vojtech Budik. The Raiders are also minus defenceman Sergei Sapego at the World Juniors with Team Belarus. Healthy scratches for P.A. Head Coach Marc Habscheid were affiliate call-up blue liner Tyler Lowe and forward Nikita Krivokrasov. The Raiders did dress 15-year-old defenceman Kaiden Guhle, who was the first overall selection in the 2017 Bantam Draft and paired him most of the night with 16-year-old Rhett Rhinehart, the 13th overall choice in the 2016 Bantam Draft.
Both teams scored a power play goal; the Blades on three chances, Prince Albert with five opportunities.
Nolan Maier made 20 saves for his fifth straight win in goal for Saskatoon. At the other end, Ian Scott stopped 38 shots and kept the score from being lop-sided in the Bridge City Bunch’s favour.
The Raiders won 28 of 55 faceoffs with Spencer Moe capturing possession on five of seven draws. Hebig paced the Blades, winning 14 of 22 trips to the dot.
The busiest individual shooter overall was Hebig with 10, giving him a total of 174 for the season. Shmyr and sophomore right winger Michael Farren each had fibe shots on goal for Saskatoon. Parker Kelly paced the Raiders with four shots on goal.
