A long time coming for Blades

By Les Lazaruk

 

EDMONTON – While on the road towards getting to .500, there was an unexpected twist for the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday.

Cam Hebig sent a soft shot along the ice between the pads of Boston Bilous with 9.8 seconds left in the third period, giving the Bridge City Bunch a momentous 3-2 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings. Instead of going to overtime, the Blue and Gold recorded their first win over the Oil Kings since November 20, 2015…ending a seven-game winless streak in head-to-head meetings with Edmonton.

Mark Rubinchik-Trey Fix-Wolansky (photo-Andy Devlin/Edmonton Oil Kings)

“Yeah,” replied Blades defenceman Libor Hajek when asked if he was getting ready for extra time. “I saw it was nine seconds left (when Hebig scored). I was happy I didn’t have to go to overtime. I was tired, we got two points…that’s great.”

Hajek scored a first period power play goal and assisted on Josh Paterson’s man-advantage tally that gave Saskatoon a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes. But, Trey Fix-Wolansky got the Oil Kings on the board just 14 seconds into the second period and Tomas Soustal tied the score 27 seconds into the third period on a power play. Going into the final 15 seconds of the third period, it appeared that there would be a 3-2 final score…only it would happen either in the five-minute overtime or in the shootout.

Braylon Shmyr (photo-Andy Devlin/Edmonton Oil Kings)

Until Hebig came along.

“I was kind of scared when they tied it up,” said Hajek. “I can’t remember the last time we beat them.”

The win gave the Bridge City Bunch two wins out of three games on a Central Division road trip, improving their overall record to 7-8-1. The Blue and Gold are off until Friday when they host the Swift Current Broncos.

Pacman Points – The Blades went with seven defencemen and 11 forwards in the lineup Saturday after calling up blue-liner Payton McIsaac from the Sherwood Park Crusaders of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. That allowed Saskatoon to dress a full lineup when rookie centre Brandon Machado came down with illness.

In addition to Machado, the Bridge City Bunch were without centre-right winger Bradly Goethals, right winger Caleb Fantillo and centre Logan Christensen, all due to upper body ailments, while centre Kirby Dach is with Team Canada-Black at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

Edmonton is also minus a player at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge…defenceman Matthew Robertson. Centre Brian Harris was a healthy scratch while 20-year-old goaltender Travis Child (upper body), defenceman Wyatt McLeod (Lower Body) and right winger Davis Murray (upper body) were out of the lineup due to injury.

Former Blades defenceman Jantzen Leslie played his second game for the Oil Kings against his former team-mates. He was dealt by Saskatoon on Monday for a conditional eighth round pick in the 2018 Bantam Draft.

The loss was the fourth in a row for the 5-10-2 Oil Kings. It also brought an end to a six-game homestand for Edmonton, during which they went 1-4-1. Their next five games are on the road in the B.C. Division.

The Oil Kings were one-for-five on the power play Saturday while the Blue and Gold were two-for-five…extending their streak to five straight games in which they have notched a man advantage score. The Blades are 6-for-16 with the extra man in that time.

Edmonton was the better team in the faceoff circle, winning 29 of 51 draws. Overage forward Davis Koch led the way, winning 11 of 14 trips to the dot. Hebig was best for the Blades with 10 wins in 19 faceoff situations.

On this night, defencemen were the busiest shooters on both teams. Hajek had five shots on goal for Saskatoon while Fedor Rudakov had five shots for the Oil Kings on Ryan Kubic, who made 29 total saves in goal for the Bridge City Bunch.