By Les Lazaruk
You’d be hard-pressed to convince the Saskatoon Blades that the Kelowna Rockets have a goaltending weakness, based on age and experience!
James Porter stopped all 40 shots he faced Saturday night for the first WHL shutout for the 17-year-old product of Bonners Ferry, ID, as Kelowna blanked the Bridge City Bunch 5-0.
Coming off an emotional 4-3 overtime victory Friday night in Regina, it wasn’t as if the Blue and Gold were flat…as evidenced by the final shots on goal tally being 40-25 in favour of the Blades.
“I don’t know that it’s too tough to bring all that emotion back,” said Saskatoon forward Logan Christensen. “We didn’t get bounces going our way and it was just a tough game.”
Jack Cowell opened the scoring with, what proved to be the game-winning goal. However, head coach Dean Brockman had no problem identifying what the key point in the game was.
“The killer for us was the goal at the end of the first period (a power play tally by Carsen Twarynski with 23 seconds remaining in the opening frame),” explained Brockman. “That’s a tough one. Certainly, we had chances to move the puck (out of the zone) and we didn’t.”
Kyle Topping scored a pair of second period goals, finishing 2-on-1 rush passes from Kole Lind while Liam Kindree finished the scoring with a short-handed goal in the late stages of the third period. Lind finished with three assists, one night after torching Prince Albert for three goals in a 7-3 Rockets’ victory…and two days after being cut by Team Canada at their selection camp in advance of the World Junior Championship.
Kelowna head home for the WHL Christmas break with a 3-3-0 record through the East Division and a 20-11-3 record overall. The Bridge City Bunch had their three-game winning streak come to an end with the loss, leaving them with a 14-17-3 record for 31 points, still two back of Prince Albert and four behind Regina for the two wild-card playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. The Raiders are into their break while the Pats lost 6-2 to visiting Lethbridge Saturday. Regina pays their first visit of the 2017-18 season to SaskTel Centre Sunday.
Pacman Points – It’s almost a certainty that the Blades will have the 1,000th player in franchise history suit up for them before this season is over. Wingers Kyle Crnkovic and Ethan Mack made their WHL and Saskatoon debuts Saturday…the 998th and 999th players to don a Blades’ jersey since the team came to be in 1964. The first two seasons for the Bridge City Bunch were as a member of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League before becoming a charter member of the Western Hockey League in 1966.
Crnkovic was the 10th overall pick in the 2017 Bantam Draft. The 15-year-old is a Chestermere, Ab., product while Edmonton native Mack, a 16-year-old, was an eighth round Bantam choice of the Blue and Gold in 2016.
The reason Crnkovic and Mack saw action with the Blades was because wingers Dryden Michaud and Michael Farren each suffered upper-body injuries Friday in Regina. They join wingers Gage Ramsay and Caleb Fantillo on the infirmary list while defenceman Libor Hajek is with Team Czech Republic, getting for the World Juniors.
Speaking of getting ready for World Juniors, the Rockets are without centre Dillon Dube and defenceman Cal Foote…away with Team Canada. Goaltender Brodan Salmond (Lower Body), winger Erik Gardiner (Upper Body), defenceman Kelvin Hair and forward Colum McGauley (both coaches decisions) were also scratched by Kelowna.
Ryan Kubic made his first appearance in goal for the Blades Saturday since suffering a knee injury during a 6-3 loss on November 18 in Moose Jaw. The 19-year-old made 20 saves.
Twarynski’s goal was the only shot on goal the Rockets managed on three power play chances. Saskatoon had 10 shots on goal in six man advantages.
Kelowna won 32 of 57 faceoffs with Topping capturing possession on 11 of 16 draws. Chase Wouters paced the Blades as the 17-year-old sophomore won 10 of 12 trips to the dot.
The busiest individual shooters overall were overage forwards Cam Hebig and Braylon Shmyr…each with seven shots on goal for the Bridge City Bunch. Lind and Cowell paced the Rockets with four shots on goal apiece.
