“Teddy Bear Toss Night” was a success all around as the Saskatoon Blades upended the Prince Albert Raiders 6-3 Wednesday night at SaskTel Centre.
Easton Armstrong (pictured) touched off an avalanche of stuffies from the season-high crowd of 7,920 at 17:18 of the first period. Following the delay to clean the ice of bears and resurfacing the ice, Egor Sidorov made the score 2-0 before the first period ended. However, P-A hung around – with the help of goaltender Max Hildebrand – and took a 3-2 lead with less than 10 minutes to go in the third period, thanks to two goals from Sloan Stanick and a power play tally from Hayden Pakkala. But, the Bridge City recovered to score four times in the final seven minutes, two tallies from Tyler Parr, an empty net marker from Lukas Hansen and a game-winning man advantage score from defenceman Charlie Wright with 2:09 remaining. The victory improved the Blue and Gold’s overall record to 24-8-2 while their consecutive game streak of picking points in the standings grew to 11 games (9-0-2) and their home-ice streak was extended to eight games (7-0-1). Armstrong added two assists for a three-point game while Parr had a helper for a three-point outing. The Raiders, who were out-shot 37-32, had their record drop to 17-16-2. The Blades return to action Friday with a visit to Brandon. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Post-Game Show comments from head coach Brennan Sonne, Armstrong and Wright plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..
Prince Albert Raiders 3 at Saskatoon Blades 6 – Status: Final
Wednesday, December 27, 2023 – SaskTel Centre – Saskatoon, SK
Prince Albert 0 1 2 – 3
Saskatoon 2 0 4 – 6
1st Period-1, Saskatoon, Armstrong 18 (Calvert, Parr), 17:18. 2, Saskatoon, Sidorov 33 (Wong, Lisowsky), 18:27. Penalties-Lisowsky Sas (holding), 3:58.
2nd Period-3, Prince Albert, Stanick 14 (Lodewyk, Crocker), 1:01. Penalties-Andrusiak Sas (holding), 4:14; Pakkala Pa (hooking), 10:23; Goldsmith Pa (holding), 12:38.
3rd Period-4, Prince Albert, Stanick 15 (Lodewyk, Chenier), 8:48. 5, Prince Albert, Pakkala 6 (Johnston, Stanick), 10:42 (PP). 6, Saskatoon, Parr 4 (Armstrong, Saunderson), 13:17. 7, Saskatoon, Wright 4 (Armstrong, Gardner), 17:51 (PP). 8, Saskatoon, Parr 5 18:50 (EN). 9, Saskatoon, Hansen 10 (James, Melnyk), 19:50 (EN). Penalties-Sidorov Sas (hooking), 6:18; Wright Sas (slashing), 10:34; Dube Pa (roughing), 17:29; Pakkala Pa (boarding), 17:29; Tastad Sas (roughing), 17:29.
Shots on Goal-Prince Albert 8-14-10-32. Saskatoon 18-9-10-37.
Power Play Opportunities-Prince Albert 1 / 4; Saskatoon 1 / 3.
Goalies-Prince Albert, Hildebrand 11-8-0-1 (35 shots-31 saves). Saskatoon, Gardner 9-4-0-0 (32 shots-29 saves).
A-7,920
Referees-Adam Bloski (16), Adam Forbes (62).
Linesmen-Ridge Brooks (161), Marc Guitard (116).
