By Les Lazaruk
After allowing seven goals in each of his first two starts for the Saskatoon Blades…both on the road…Tyler Brown showed fans of the Blue and Gold just what kind of goaltender he really is on Saturday night.
The 20-year-old, who backstopped the Regina Pats to last year’s WHL final, stopped 36 shots over 65 minutes…then stopped five of six shootout attempts as the Bridge City Bunch out-lasted the Prince George Cougars 4-3.
“It felt pretty good…no, no, really good,” smiled the Winnipeg product who was one of the players moved in the Deadline Day, three-team deal involving the Blades, Pats and Medicine Hat. “I wanted to win my first game at home. I thought I just had to be big at the (key) moments when I had to be and things just kind of went from there.”
After Josh Paterson beat 17-year-old rookie Isaiah DiLaura to the high, slove side to start the sixth round of the shootout, Brown closed the “five hole” on Josh Maser’s attempt, giving Saskatoon a big victory in front of 3,817 fans at SaskTel Centre.
After all, they were under a minute away from a loss that would’ve stung in the East Division and Eastern Conference standings.
Paterson opened the scoring just past the mid-point of the first period and that 1-0 score held up until there were two minutes left in the second frame…which is when the roller-coaster of emotions for both teams kicked in!
Former Bridge City Bunch Bantam Draft pick Joel Lakusta sent the teams to the second intermission tied 1-1. Ilijah Colina gave the Cats a 2-1 lead just 53 seconds into the third stanza.
Shmyr poked in a rebound on a power play…his 100th career WHL goal…a short time later to tie the score, only to have Prince George’s 22nd-ranked power play in the WHL give the Cougars the lead again as defenceman Ryan Schoettler’s seeing-eye shot found the back of the Blue and Gold net with 5:55 remaining.
The Blades appeared to tie the game when captain Evan Fiala’s shot found the range with 54.6 seconds left…only to be waved off by video review that showed Caleb Fantillo touching the puck on the way with a stick above the cross-bar. However, P.G. was penalized on the play and Max Gerlach buried a loose puck with 39.9 seconds remaining in regulation time to force extra time.
The 3-on-3 overtime didn’t solve the result, despite a succession of odd-man rushes and breakaways for both teams. Saskatoon out-shot the Cougars 6-5 in the five-minute bonus period.
In the shootout, with the Bridge City Bunch choosing to shoot first each round, Kirby Dach scored on the first shot. Colina tied it up in Round 2 for Prince George. In Round 5, Cougars’ forward Brogan O’Brien almost slipped a shot through Brown’s pads for the winner…the puck staying out by mere inches…leading to the Round 6 events.
The Cougars, who are 0-1-1 to start their East Division road trip and 18-24-8 overall, out-shot the 25-23-3 Blue and Gold 39-38. The Blades were 2-for-4 on the power play while P.G. was 1-for-4 with the man advantage.
The win came with Prince Albert having completed a 9-2 whipping of Edmonton nearly an hour before Brown’s final save off Maser in the shootout. Saskatoon remains four points ahead of the Raiders for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference while the Blades moved within two points of seventh place Regina after the Pats lost 3-1 Saturday afternoon in Swift Current.
The Blades are home to Red Deer Wednesday before travelling to P.A. Friday for the biggest game of the season…so far!
