What didn’t quite work Friday for the Saskatoon Blades turned out to be effective Saturday!
The Bridge City Bunch opened and closed the scoring, while alternating goals with the home team, allowing the Blue and Gold to edge the Calgary Hitmen 3-2.
“Both Edmonton (Friday) night and Calgary (Saturday) night were tough tests,” said assistant coach Ryan Keller. “(Both) are deeper teams where we’ve got to make sure we’ve got everybody on board and (Saturday) night, it was a good, all-round effort. I thought throughout the game, our compete level was high, even when we lost some things structurally or started to mismanage pucks, our compete level was still there.”
Eric Florchuk (pictured) scored twice in the third period, the second goal with 6:19 remaining that snapped a 2-2 tie. Linemate Tristen Robins opened the scoring on a first period power play. The victory ended a four-game losing streak on the road for the 9-7-2 Blades. Saskatoon returns home for four consecutive games at SaskTel Centre…the first of which is Friday against Red Deer. Following is the official game summary from the W-H-L…
Saskatoon Blades 3 at Calgary Hitmen 2 – Status: Final
Saturday, November 2, 2019 – Scotiabank Saddledome – Calgary, AB
Saskatoon 1 0 2 – 3
Calgary 0 1 1 – 2
1st Period-1, Saskatoon, Robins 6 (Crnkovic, Walford), 13:52 (PP). Penalties-Focht Cgy (tripping), 0:49; van de Leest Cgy (interference), 12:18.
2nd Period-2, Calgary, Allan 1 (Campbell, van de Leest), 9:18. Penalties-Schmidt Sas (roughing), 9:20; Carriere Cgy (roughing), 9:20; Krebs Cgy (high sticking), 10:33; Orchard Sas (tripping), 14:16.
3rd Period-3, Saskatoon, Florchuk 7 (McKay, Kjemhus), 0:48. 4, Calgary, Kastelic 9 (Krebs, Malm), 11:14. 5, Saskatoon, Florchuk 8 (Robins, De La Gorgendiere), 13:41. Penalties-Zamula Cgy (cross checking), 3:46; Dach Sas (tripping), 14:19.
Shots on Goal-Saskatoon 12-9-10-31. Calgary 13-14-12-39.
Power Play Opportunities-Saskatoon 1 / 4; Calgary 0 / 2.
Goalies-Saskatoon, Maier 7-6-1-1 (39 shots-37 saves). Calgary, McNaughton 5-2-0-0 (31 shots-28 saves).
A-6,429
Referees-Taylor Burzminski (83), Ward Pateman (124).
Linesmen-Jared Mackey (52), Mason Stewart (93).
