On a night of firsts and breaks, the Regina Pats got more of both and defeated the visiting Saskatoon Blades 5-3 Friday night.

Sixteen-year-old Saskatoon product Corban Almen and 17-year-old rookie defenceman Aaron Krestanovich snapped a scoreless game in the second period, each scoring their first career W-H-L goals. Almen added a second goal just past the mid-point of the middle frame for a 3-0 lead before the Bridge City Bunch started to battle back. Hudson Kibblewhite (pictured) tallied his first W-H-L goal for the Blue and Gold and former Pat Easton Armstrong connected on a power play to get the Blades back to within a goal after 40 minutes. However, a video review conducted during the first time-out of the third period determined that a Tanner Howe scoring chance, originally ruled to have been stopped by Saskatoon goaltender Austin Elliott, actually did cross fully over the goal-line. Then, after Brandon Lisowsky drew the Bridge City Bunch back to within a goal, with Elliott on the bench for an extra attacker, with just over a minute to play, a puck that appeared to be covered by the glove of a Pats’ skater in the goal crease was ruled not to have been the case by the officials and Jaxsin Vaughan slated the decision away with an empty net goal. The win was the fifth straight at home for the 8-5-1 Pats while the 8-4-0 Blue and Gold had a three-game road winning streak ended, losing back-to-back games for the first time this season. The Blades are back on the ice Saturday in Brandon with CJWW’s broadcast starting at 5:45 p.m. with the Palliser Rooms E-Q-3 Cutting Edge Pre-Game Show and the play-by-play at 6 o’clock. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Les Lazaruk’s Post-Game Show interview with Saskatoon head coach Brennan Sonne and the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..

Saskatoon Blades 3 at Regina Pats 5 – Status: Final
Friday, October 27, 2023 – Brandt Centre – Regina, SK

Saskatoon 0 2 1 – 3
Regina 0 3 2 – 5

1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Spencer Reg (slashing), 2:01; Howe Reg (hooking), 18:00.

2nd Period-1, Regina, Almen 1 (Keagan Slaney, Haynes), 3:51. 2, Regina, Krestanowich 1 (Vaughan), 6:57. 3, Regina, Almen 2 (Vaughan, Mushumanski), 10:21. 4, Saskatoon, Kibblewhite 1 (Watterodt), 14:22. 5, Saskatoon, Armstrong 8 (Sidorov, Wong), 17:24 (PP). Penalties-Barnett Reg (roughing), 11:18; Howe Reg (high sticking), 16:53.

3rd Period-6, Regina, Howe 9 (Oremba, Shantz), 6:27. 7, Saskatoon, Lisowsky 8 (Armstrong, Wong), 18:52. 8, Regina, Vaughan 1 (Howe), 19:38 (EN). Penalties-Keller Sas (roughing), 20:00; Vaughan Reg (roughing), 20:00.

Shots on Goal-Saskatoon 9-19-7-35. Regina 12-8-8-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Saskatoon 1 / 4; Regina 0 / 0.
Goalies-Saskatoon, Elliott 6-2-0-0 (27 shots-23 saves). Regina, Pyne 4-2-1-0 (35 shots-32 saves).
A-2,993
Referees-Josh Grimm (76), Tarrington Wyonzek (137).
Linesmen-Kaden Fiacco (120), Lucas Nagel (170).