It’s crazy to think that the ICE franchise won just 13 games last year in their last season in Kootenay. Now that the team has moved to Winnipeg, the team is not only the hottest in the East Division, but they’re one of the hottest teams in the Western Hockey League.
The team will begin a nine-game home stand this weekend, the first of two will be against the Prince Albert Raiders. Prior to that, Winnipeg has some well deserved rest.
On Monday, the team beat Prince Albert to jump atop the East Division. On Wednesday, they had the chance to remain atop the East Division by themselves and that’s exactly what they did.
Finishing up their quick Saskatchewan road trip, Winnipeg went into the Sasktel Centre in Saskatoon and they hammered the Blades, 6-1.
The ICE took a 4-0 lead through 40 minutes and they only allowed 14 shots in the process, all of which were stopped by Liam Hughes.
Saskatoon scored one goal in the third period on 12 shots, but it wasn’t nearly enough as Hughes was once again excellent and the ICE offence led by Owen Pederson produced a ton.
Connor McClennon opened the scoring just less than 14 minutes into the contest to give Winnipeg a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.
With that lead in the second, the ICE completely took control of the game. Isaac Johnson scored his 12th of the season to make it 2-0, just 52 seconds into the frame. Star rookie defenceman, Carson Lambos would score his seventh of the season about nine minutes later to make it 3-0.
Just more than two minutes later at the 12:30 mark, Owen Pederson scored his 12th of the season to give Winnipeg a commanding 4-0 lead after 40.
Pederson scored his 13th of the season and second of the game just 4:12 into the third to give the ICE a 5-0 lead.
Less than five minutes later, Jakin Smallwood gave Winnipeg a 6-0 lead and they far from ever looked back.
The only real positive for Saskatoon in the game was they were able to snap Hughes shutout. Colton Dach scored with just 1:18 left to trim the deficit to five.
In the end, the ICE still skated off with a 6-1 win and they won their fourth straight game in the process. Winnipeg is also 8-2 in their last 10 games.
ICINGS:
- On top of Pederson’s two goals, he also had two assists to lead Winnipeg with four points.
- Winnipeg went 1-for-4 on the power play while Saskatoon went 0-for-3.
- Hughes is sixth in the league with a .918 save percentage thanks to his 25-save performance. (This statistic is based off goalies who have played at least 10 games).
As mentioned above, Winnipeg will now play nine straight games at the Wayne Fleming Arena where they are 12-5 this season.
Winnipeg’s 23-13-1 record has them with 47 points and they’re currently two ahead of Prince Albert. They meet twice this weekend in Winnipeg.
Saskatoon, meanwhile, is 17-16-1-2 and they remain third in the East Division. They have the same amount of points as Brandon, but they hold the tie-break.
