The Saskatoon Blades’ losing streak was stopped before it started and the Bridge City Bunch put the brakes on the Calgary Hitmen’s four-game winning run with Friday’s 4-3 triumph at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
The Blue and Gold scored 12 seconds into the contest on a perfectly executed set of passes that turned into a 2-on-1 into the Calgary end with Vaughan Watterodt converting Misha Volotovskii’s feed. The Blades were never caught, but couldn’t put away the much-younger Hitmen, needing a Ben Saunderson blocked shot at the final horn to preserve their 30th win of the season – the first W-H-L team to hit the plateau. But, they made it tough on themselves. In a match-up of the W-H-L’s least penalized team – Saskatoon – and the league’s most penalized squad – Calgary – the Bridge City Bunch were assessed seven of 11 minor penalties and gave the Hitmen three separate 5-on-3 power play chances. But, Calgary could only connect on one of them and were 1-for-6 overall on the man advantage. Fraser Minten, Brandon Lisowsky and Trevor Wong (pictured) also scored for the 30-9-4 Blue and Gold while Evan Gardner made 31 saves for his 11th goaltending win of the campaign. Calgary, who were out-shot 42-31, fell to 17-18-4 for the season. The Blades get another day off on the road Saturday before finishing a three-game Alberta road trip Sunday in Edmonton. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Les Lazaruk’s Post-Game Show interview with head coach Brennan Sonne and the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..
Saskatoon Blades 4 at Calgary Hitmen 3 – Status: Final
Friday, January 19, 2024 – Scotiabank Saddledome – Calgary, AB
Saskatoon 3 0 1 – 4
Calgary 1 1 1 – 3
1st Period-1, Saskatoon, Watterodt 6 (Volotovskii, Calvert), 0:12. 2, Saskatoon, Minten 8 (Suzdalev, Babcock), 11:02. 3, Calgary, Moore 11 (Muranov, Adaszynski), 18:40. 4, Saskatoon, Lisowsky 25 (Suzdalev), 19:15. Penalties-Babcock Sas (holding), 4:12; Yakemchuk Cgy (closing hand on puck), 14:18.
2nd Period-5, Calgary, Tulk 24 (Fawcett, Williams), 19:02. Penalties-Babcock Sas (interference), 4:24; Wright Sas (high sticking), 4:42; Armstrong Sas (roughing), 9:22; Yakemchuk Cgy (roughing), 9:22; Tulk Cgy (interference), 11:08.
3rd Period-6, Saskatoon, Wong 12 (Siepmann), 1:17. 7, Calgary, Fawcett 11 (Moore, Pisarczyk), 10:08 (PP). Penalties-Melnyk Sas (hooking), 8:17; Watterodt Sas (hooking), 9:26; Babcock Sas (cross checking), 10:45; Mayes Cgy (tripping), 13:23.
Shots on Goal-Saskatoon 15-18-9-42. Calgary 8-15-8-31.
Power Play Opportunities-Saskatoon 0 / 3; Calgary 1 / 6.
Goalies-Saskatoon, Gardner 11-5-0-1 (31 shots-28 saves). Calgary, Garrett 3-6-1-0 (42 shots-38 saves).
A-3,060
Referees-Alex Homer (49), Jesse Wood-Schatz (21).
Linesmen-Michael Roberts (87).
