The Saskatoon Blades were 17.9 seconds away from extending their winning streak to eight games Saturday night. Instead, the Bridge City Bunch will have to be content with a 10-game run of collecting points in the standings after falling 5-4 in overtime to the visiting Kelowna Rockets.
Kelowna captain Gabriel Szturc tallied 78 seconds into overtime, giving the Rockets a 4-1-0 record on their East Division road trip and an overall mark of 15-15-2 for the season. It appeared as though the Blue and Gold were going to sent the large majority of 6,320 fans home happy when Tyler Parr scored a short-handed goal with 4:21 remaining in the third period to give the Blades a 4-3 lead. However, Marek Rocak forced extra time with 17.9 seconds remaining to set up Szturc’s heroics. It was a game of momentum swings as Kelowna scored three times after Egor Sidorov notched the opening goal. Saskatoon battled back as Sidorov added a power play goal, giving him 32 for the season in only 31 games played, and Brandon Lisowsky dented the twine to tie the game, setting up the roller-coaster finish. The Bridge City Bunch are 8-0-2 in their last 10 games and 23-8-2 overall going into the Christmas break. The Blue and Gold don’t return to action until Wednesday, December 27 when they host the Prince Albert Raiders. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, post-game comments from head coach Brennan Sonne and Sidorov plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..
Kelowna Rockets 5 (OT) at Saskatoon Blades 4 – Status: Final OT
Saturday, December 16, 2023 – SaskTel Centre – Saskatoon, SK
Kelowna 3 0 1 1 – 5
Saskatoon 2 1 1 0 – 4
1st Period-1, Saskatoon, Sidorov 31 (Lisowsky, Wong), 7:17. 2, Kelowna, Schelter 5 (Cristall, Babcock), 10:39. 3, Kelowna, Price 4 (Gojsic), 11:39. 4, Kelowna, Iginla 25 (Cristall), 16:16 (SH). 5, Saskatoon, Sidorov 32 (Siepmann, Lisowsky), 19:57 (PP). Penalties-Mittelsteadt Kel (high sticking), 7:58; Sadhra-Kang Kel (holding), 14:41; Szturc Kel (hooking), 19:23.
2nd Period-6, Saskatoon, Lisowsky 18 (Klimpke), 14:05. Penalties-Johnson Kel (charging), 4:49; Cristall Kel (checking from behind), 18:44.
3rd Period-7, Saskatoon, Parr 3 (Wong), 15:39 (SH). 8, Kelowna, Rocak 6 19:42 (EN). Penalties-Mittelsteadt Kel (tripping), 4:58; Saunderson Sas (hooking), 14:46.
OT Period-9, Kelowna, Szturc 14 (Rocak, Iginla), 1:18. Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Kelowna 8-8-7-1-24. Saskatoon 10-10-11-0-31.
Power Play Opportunities-Kelowna 0 / 1; Saskatoon 1 / 6.
Goalies-Kelowna, Kykkanen 13-8-0-0 (31 shots-27 saves). Saskatoon, Elliott 15-4-2-0 (23 shots-19 saves).
A-6,320
Referees-Brayden Glynn (96), Josh Grimm (76).
Linesmen-Riley Carriere (72), Tanner McGregor (55).
