It took him 26 games into his W-H-L career to have them, but Morgan Tastad (pictured) had a night of offensive firsts as the Saskatoon Blades edged the Warriors 4-3 in Moose Jaw Saturday night.
The 17-year-old rookie defenceman collected his first W-H-L point, drawing an assist on rookie Hudson Kibblewhite’s third goal of the season as the 16-year-old opened the scoring. Tastad then doubled down on that initial point by firing home the game-winning goal with 4:07 remaining in the third period to snap a 3-3 tie, his first W-H-L tally. Fraser Minten and Easton Armstrong also scored in the third period as the Bridge City Bunch won for the second time this season when trailing after two periods. The victory was the fifth straight for the Blue and Gold and upped their season record to 21-8-1, seven points better than 17-12-2 Moose Jaw. For the second time in eight days, the Blades had to overcome a Teddy Bear Toss promotion in an opposition rink. Kalem Parker’s goal with 10.6 seconds left in the first period tied the score. From there, the momentum and the lead teetered back-and-forth between the teams. For Saskatoon, they overcame playing with just five defencemen and 13 forwards as Tanner Molendyk, Samuel Barcik and Carter Herman were all sidelined with injuries and the Bridge City Bunch had 16-year-old affiliate blue-liner Brayden Klimpke in the line-up for a second straight game to complement Tastad, Ben Saunderson, Charlie Wright and Grayden Siepmann. Behind them, rookie Evan Gardner was solid to spectacular in goal, making 30 saves as the Blue and Gold were out-shot 33-24. In addition, the win was the 100th for Brennan Sonne as head coach of the Blades. Saskatoon completes a three games-in-three days series Sunday at SaskTel Centre against the Calgary Hitmen. CJWW’s broadcast starts with the Palliser Rooms E-Q-3 Pre-Game Show at 3:45 p.m. and the play-by-play at 4 o’clock. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast and Les Lazaruk’s Post-Game Show interview with Sonne plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..
Saskatoon Blades 4 at Moose Jaw Warriors 3 – Status: Final
Saturday, December 9, 2023 – Moose Jaw Events Centre – Moose Jaw, SK
Saskatoon 1 0 3 – 4
Moose Jaw 1 1 1 – 3
1st Period-1, Saskatoon, Kibblewhite 3 (Tastad, Calvert), 2:16. 2, Moose Jaw, Parker 2 (Calvert, Lakovic), 19:50. Penalties-Wilson Mj (boarding), 16:53.
2nd Period-3, Moose Jaw, Firkus 27 (Yager), 15:36 (SH). Penalties-Semeniuk Mj (slashing), 14:53.
3rd Period-4, Saskatoon, Minten 5 (Lisowsky, Siepmann), 0:32. 5, Saskatoon, Armstrong 16 (Wong, Sidorov), 3:19. 6, Moose Jaw, Calvert 18 12:06. 7, Saskatoon, Tastad 1 (Wong, Sidorov), 15:53. Penalties-Sidorov Sas (inter. on goaltender), 13:15.
Shots on Goal-Saskatoon 10-9-7-26. Moose Jaw 10-9-14-33.
Power Play Opportunities-Saskatoon 0 / 2; Moose Jaw 0 / 1.
Goalies-Saskatoon, Gardner 7-4-0-0 (33 shots-30 saves). Moose Jaw, Unger 14-11-0-2 (26 shots-22 saves).
A-3,313
Referees-Tarrington Wyonzek (137), Wyatt Rapsky (119).
Linesmen-Josh Blondeau (118), Ryan Lundquist (106).
