By Les Lazaruk
Saskatoon Blades have been known in the past…even in this season…to complain that their Western Hockey League team doesn’t do the things at home that they seem to be able to do on the road.
That changed Friday night at SaskTel Centre.
Braylon Shmyr was the scoring hero as his present team, the Blades, staged a late, wild rally to out-score his former team, the Brandon Wheat Kings, 6-5.
But, the 20-year-old Shmyr suffered from “selective memory” during 92-9, THE BULL’s post-game show.
“I can’t remember that, I blacked out,” said the left winger when asked to go through his trio of third period goals…the fourth hat-trick of his W-H-L career.
However, Shmyr recalled the game-winner with 18 seconds remaining in regulation time, “It was a shot from the point and it went off (Wheaties’ goalie Logan Thompson’s) far pad and it came right out to me. I was kind of on a bad angle, so I was on my backhand…so, I just kind of took a back-hand clapper and it luckily went in.”
For the third straight game, all against teams from the East Division ranked in the C-H-L’s Top 10 this week, there was a wild third period comeback involving the Bridge City Bunch. Brandon, rated 10th, held a 4-1 lead after 40 minutes. Cam Hebig and Shmyr scored power play goals 26 seconds apart to cut the deficit to 4-3, only to have Evan Weinger complete a hat-trick for the Wheat Kings with just over six minutes to play, on a power play, for a 5-3 advantage.
Game, set and match…right?! Not so fast!
With goaltender Nolan Maier on the bench for an extra attacker, Blue and Gold defenceman Libor Hajek scored at 18:04. Shmyr tied it up just as Maier got to the bench again at 18:53 to tie the score…setting the stage for Shmyr’s winner in front of 3,886 delirious fans.
Earlier in the week, the Blades rallied from a 6-2 deficit in the third period to force overtime before losing 7-6 at Moose Jaw Tuesday to the C-H-L’s #2 ranked team. On Wednesday in Swift Current, Saskatoon let a 4-1 lead after two periods evaporate before losing 5-4 in overtime to sixth-rated Broncos.
The victory put the brakes to a four-game winless skid for the 9-12-3 Bridge City Bunch. The Blue and Gold head out on their longest road trip of the season…a tour of the five-team U.S. Division, beginning Tuesday in Tri-Cities. Brad Goethals also scored for the Blades, who out-shot Brandon (14-7-1) 43-31…21-8 in the third period.
The loss ended the Wheaties’ winning streak at five games as they started a six games-in-nine nights road trip.
Pacman Points – For the first time this season, Brandon lost after scoring the first goal of a game. Evan Weinger tallied 28 seconds in as the Wheat Kings opened the scoring for the 12th time.
Saskatoon is now 2-10-2 when trailing after 40 minutes. The Bridge City Bunch is also 6-0-3 in one-goal games this season.
The Blades were 2-for-6 on the power play, but surrendered a shorthanded goal for the sixth time. The Wheaties finished 2-for-5 on the man advantage.
The Blue and Gold played the final two periods without the services of defenceman and captain Evan Fiala. No specifics about an injury were revealed, but his situation isn’t considered serious or of a long term nature.
Once again, Saskatoon was without 19-year-old goaltender Ryan Kubic with a lower body injury and centre Logan Christensen because of an upper body injury. Defenceman Seth Bafaro, along with forwards Tyler Lees and Arjun Atwal were healthy scratches.
Brandon captain Tanner Kaspick served the first of a two-game, league-imposed suspension. Forward Linden McCorrister sat out with an Upper Body injury while veteran defencemen Daniel Bukac and James shearer are sidelined by lower body injuries. Only Bukac isn’t with the Wheat Kings on their road swing.
Saskatoon won 42 of 64 faceoffs with Hebig leading the way by capturing possession for his team on 14 of 19 draws. Stelio Mattheos was tops for Brandon, winning 11 of 24 trips to the dot.
The busiest individual shooters overall were Shmyr and Hebig for the Blades with seven shots each Hajek and Gage Ramsay had six shots each. Right winger Baron Thompson paced the Wheaties with six shots on goal.
