By Les Lazaruk
The Saskatoon Blades have a “two-strike” count against them. With 10 games remaining in the regular-season, the Bridge City Bunch needs to avoid a third strike or hope that it doesn’t put them out…of the playoffs!
For the second time in two weeks, the blue and gold held a multi-goal lead with under five minutes to play in the second period, only to fritter it away and get nothing in the standings because of a regulation loss. The latest “swing and a miss” for the Blades came Friday at home as a 4-0 lead ended up being a 7-5 Regina Pats’ triumph.
“I thought we took our foot off the gas half-way through the second period,” explained Saskatoon head coach Dean Brockman. “Geez, you know when that happens, it’s tough to get it back. We were up by four, but we got a couple of lucky ones, too, so we didn’t feel like we were up by that much or played that much better.”
Back on February 9 in Brandon, the Wheat Kings scored the final five goals…after the Bridge City Bunch built a 3-1 lead going into the late stages of the second period…coming back for a 6-3 triumph.
Friday’s game at SaskTel Centre was eerily similar. After Kirby Dach, Seth Bafaro, Eric Florchuk and Gage Ramsay staked the blue and gold to the 4-0 advantage, the Pats chipped away, getting goals from Cam Hebig and Koby Morrisseau before the second intermission. Regina tied the game at 4-4 before four minutes had elapsed in the third period on tallies from Robbie Holmes and Matt Bradley.
Chase Wouters gave the Blades the lead again just 25 seconds after Bradley tied the score, only to have Sam Steel knot it up again.
That set the stage for a great stretch pass from Emil Oksanen that sent Jared Legien in on a breakaway, beating Nolan Maier for the winning goal with 2:34 remaining. Bradley added an empty net tally as the Pats won their fourth straight game and improved their record to 33-24-6 for 72 point – five more than Brandon for third place in the East Division.
The loss snapped a three-game, home-ice winning streak for Saskatoon, who is now 31-28-3 for the year. They remain two points back of Brandon for the first wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference after the Wheat Kings were whipped 7-2 in Lethbridge. But, Prince Albert lurks just four back of the Bridge City Bunch for the second and final wild-card post-season berth after the Raiders edged the Rebels 3-2 in Red Deer.
The blue and gold get a rare Saturday off before hosting Moose Jaw Sunday afternoon.
Pacman Points – The Blades won the season series, 5-3 over Regina. The road win was the only one in four visits to Saskatoon for the Pats.
Thanks to a goal and two assists, former Bridge City Bunch forward Hebig was the leading scorer in the season series between the two teams. The 20-year-old had three goals amongst 10 points in four games for the Blue and Gold against Regina. In four games for Regina, after being acquired at the Trade Deadline from the Blades, the Saskatoon product scored four goals and added four assists against his home-town team. In total, Hebig had 18 points, seven of them goals, in the eight games.
Despite being outshot 10-6 in the first period, the Pats out-shot the Bridge City Bunch 36-28. Humboldt product Jacob Wasserman stopped 23 shots for his first W-H-L win in his first W-H-L start and second overall appearance on behalf of Regina.
The first goal of the game for Blue and Gold, scored by Dach, was the 200th of the season for the Blades after managing to tally just 190 times all of last season.
Both teams had five power play chances…Saskatoon scoring twice and the Pats once. Neither team tallied on a lengthy 5-on-3 advantage in the contest. The Bridge City Bunch had a full two minutes of two-man advantage in the first period while Regina couldn’t score with 64 seconds on a 5-on-3 opportunity.
Former Pats’ defenceman Dawson Davidson missed a second straight game for the Blue and Gold because of an Upper Body injury while left wingers Tyler Lees and Alec Zawatsky were healthy scratches.
Regina was minus two players because of suspension…defenceman Liam Schioler sat the first game of a two-game sentence for a checking from behind major in Prince Albert on Monday while left winger Jesse Gabrielle completed his two-game suspension for a game misconduct last Sunday against Moose Jaw. The Pats were also without goaltender Ryan Kubic (upper-body injury), defenceman Jonas Harkins (illness) along with wingers Austin Pratt and Bryce Platt (both coache’s decisions). The Queen City Kids did call up 17-year-old blueliner Marco Creta from Virden of the Manitoba Junior League to give Regina six defencemen.
The Pats won 32 of 57 faceoffs, led by Bradley capturing possession on seven of 10 draws. Brad Goethals won all three of his trips to the dot to be the Blades’ top man in the circle.
Bradley was Regina’s most active shooter with six shots on goal…the same as Ramsay, who paced Saskatoon with six shots on goal.
