By Les Lazaruk
The Saskatoon Blades responded Friday in the two ways they needed to.
Coming off a less-than-impressive effort in a 7-3 loss in Regina Wednesday, the Bridge City Bunch started strong…scoring three times in the first 10 minutes…on the way to a 5-0 victory over the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings.
The two points were necessary for the Blue and Gold as the Prince Albert Raiders kept pace in the race to catch a playoff spot in the WHL’s Eastern Conference, trimming the visiting Prince George Cougars 6-2. The Blades (25-24-3) are four points ahead of P.A. (19-20-9) for the eighth and final post-season berth.
On Saturday, Saskatoon is home to P.G. while the Raiders host Edmonton. Meanwhile, the Memorial Cup-host Regina Pats, who were off Friday and visit Swift Current Saturday afternoon to open a home-and-home series, are just four points ahead of the Bridge City Bunch.
Josh Paterson, Max Gerlach on a power play and defenceman Jackson Caller chased Oil Kings’ starting goaltender Josh Dechaine at the mid-first period timeout. At the other end, Nolan Maier wasn’t overly busy, but ended up making 20 saves for his second shutout.
“The message was pretty loud and clear (Thursday),” said head coach Dean Brockman. “We wanted to talk about what we were going to do to prepare ourselves to make this run. We had 23 (games left in the season) before (Friday night) started. And, I thought our guys did a lot of the things that we talked about.”
Michael Farren and Braylon Shmyr added goals for the Blue and Gold in the second and third periods, respectively while Kirby Dach showed off his passing wizardry, setting up Gerlach and Farren for their power play tallies.
The Blades scored on two of their first five power play chances, but wound up 2-for-11 with the man advantage as a combination of frustration and lack of discipline led to Edmonton being assessed 13 of 19 minor penalties. Saskatoon only had nine shots on goal with the nine power play chances and only managed 28 shots on goal total on Dechaine and Todd Scott. The Oil Kings were 0-for-3 on the man advantage.
Pacman Points – Maier’s previous shutout was a 48-save effort in Portland on December 3…a 4-0 Bridge City Bunch triumph.
The now 17-year-old rookie goaltender has a personal record of 16-9-1. All of the victories coincide with the Blue and Gold going 16-11-2 since November 21, and moving into a playoff spot. The last goaltender not named Nolan Maier to record a win on behalf of the Blades was Ryan Kubic, now of the Regina Pats, a 5-4 decision over the Moose Jaw Warriors on November 15 at SaskTel Centre.
Gerlach added an assist to his marker, giving him seven goals and three helpers for 10 points in eight games since being acquired by Saskatoon from Medicine Hat at the WHL Trade Deadline.
Paterson also added an assist to his game-opening, game-winning goal…extending his consecutive games-played streak to 123. The now 19-year-old Edmonton product is one of four members of the Bridge City Bunch to have played in all 50 games this season…the others being defenceman Jake Kustra, left winger Shmyr and centre Chase Wouters. Defenceman and captain Evan Fiala sat out Friday’s game due to a one-game suspension from the WHL…supplemental discipline for being assessed a cross-checking major penalty and game misconduct back on Wednesday in Regina.
With the Blue and Gold welcoming back right winger Caleb Fantillo (23 games missed) and defenceman Mark Rubinchik (4 games missed) back to the line-up from Lower Body injuries, left winger Tyler Lees was a healthy scratch. In addition, defenceman Dawson Davidson was sidelined by illness. Without Fiala and Davidson, head coach Brockman dropped centre Logan Christensen back to the blueline brigade.
Edmonton has two players who have undergone season-ending shoulder surgery…overage goaltender Travis Child and Belarus forward Andrei Pavlenko. Rookie netminder Boston Bilous is sidelined by illness and defenceman Wyatt McLeod was out with a Lower Body injury. Head coach Steve Hamilton decided to scratch defenceman Jayden Platz plus forwards Nicholas Bowman and Carter Souch.
The Blades won 22 of 43 faceoffs for the 60 minutes with Wouters winning eight of 13 trips to the dot. Czech import Tomas Soustal paced the Oil Kings by capturing possession on 10 of 16 draws.
Paterson led all players with five shots on goal for Saskatoon. Liam Keller topped Edmonton with four shots on goal.
