By Les Lazaruk
Turn-about, obviously, is fair play. That has been pointed out previously this season with the Saskatoon Blades and it happened again Saturday night.
After allowing the last five goals Friday in a 6-3 loss in Brandon, the bridge city bunch scored four unanswered tallies in the third period Saturday to overcome a 3-2 deficit after two frames for a 6-3 triumph over the visiting Prince Albert Raiders.
Brad Goethals scored the winning goal 77 seconds after Logan Christensen had tied the score in the middle portion of the third stanza. Braylon Shmyr added an insurance goal while Goethals added a second marker in the dying seconds into an empty P.A. net.
“Yeah, you hope they even out at the end of the year,” said Blades head coach Dean Brockman with a wry smile. “It’s a huge win for our hockey team. I think our guys were pretty jacked up after the second period just knowing that we were still there and had a chance. I thought they played a really solid third period.”
The result boosted Saskatoon, with a 27-26-3 record for 57 points, back into sole possession of the WHL Eastern Conference’s second wild-card playoff spot…two points ahead of the Raiders, now 22-22-11 for the campaign.
The teams alternated scoring as Michael Farren for the bridge city bunch had his goal matched just 36 seconds later by Parker Kelly’s tally. Josh Paterson gave the Blue and Gold the lead again, notching a power play marker to finish off the first period. However, Jordy Stallard scored twice in the second frame, including a go-ahead power play goal to give Prince Albert their only lead of the night.
“We came out hot in the first (period),” explained Blades’ left winger Eric Florchuk, who had two assists including the helper on Goethals’ winner. “Then in the second, when Kirby (Dach) got run into boards, we kind of fell off the horse and they took it to us for a little bit. Going into the locker room after the first two periods, we just had to regroup and go forward because (in) the first period we were up 2-1 and we just had to continue our game from the first into the third period and we’d be fine.”
Raiders’ forward Parker Kelly was assessed a five minute checking from behind major penalty and accompanying game misconduct at 18:27 of the first period when he hit Saskatoon centre Kirby Dach from behind in the P.A. left wing corner while the Raiders were on a power play. Dach appeared to go head first into the glass, left the game and never returned. It’s expected that Kelly will face supplemental discipline from the WHL for the incident.
Rookie Nolan Maier back-stopped the Bridge City Bunch to their fourth straight home win as Prince Albert out-shot the Blue and Gold 32-30. Both teams scored once on the power play…the Blades on only three chances, compared to five man advantages for the Raiders.
Both teams are back in action Sunday…Saskatoon hosts the Regina Pats while P.A. is back home to Swift Current.
Pacman Points – An announced attendance of 4,444 saw a special pre-game ceremony to celebrate the 30th anniversary of SaskTel Centre. Originally known as Saskatchewan Place, the Blades beat Brandon 4-3 in the first-ever hockey game in the facility back on February 9, 1988.
Among the special guests in attendance was Murray Howe, the son of hockey icon, and Saskatoon product, Gordie Howe. Copies of his new book, “Nine Lessons I Learned From My Father” were available to fans, as well as Murray personally signing his book.
The victory was the 14th straight for the Bridge City Bunch over the Raiders at SaskTel Centre. The last Prince Albert win in Saskatoon was September 20, 2014.
The blue and gold had three healthy scratches…defenceman Seth Bafaro along with left wingers Tyler Lees and Alec Zawatsky…four if you count 15-year-old goaltender Koen MacInnes, who was called up to the Blades as an affiliate player for the weekend.
Both of the Raiders scratches were coaches decisions…forwards Eric Pearce and Nikita Krivokrasov.
Saskatoon won 37 of 65 faceoffs, led by Chase Wouters capturing possession on 13 of 18 draws. Sean Montgomery was P.A.’s top man in the circle, winning 14 of 25 trips to the dot.
The Raiders’ Stallard led all individual players in the game with six shots on goal. Christensen paced the bridge city bunch with five shots on goal.
