Between a W-H-L debut as a starting goaltender for Saskatoon product Ethan Chadwick, three power play goals for and none against and a late tally after the home team rallied to tie, the Saskatoon Blades emerged from Saturday’s visit to Moose Jaw with a 4-3 victory over the Warriors.
Chadwick stopped 25 of 28 shots for his first W-H-L win in his second appearance and first start. He was solid and made a couple of big stops in the late stages of the third period when Moose Jaw was pressing to tie the score with Saskatoon product Brett Mirwald on the bench for an extra attacker. Chadwick and the Bridge City Bunch had an inauspicious start to their power play, allowing Ryder Korczak to score short-handed on the Warriors’ first shot on goal of the game. However, as good an individual effort that Korczak showed, Tristen Robins was even better 71 seconds later, tying the score on the same Blue and Gold man advantage. From there, Moritz Elias and Kyle Crnkovic notched power play goals to give the Blades a 3-1 lead after two periods. For German import Elias, the goal was his first, and his first point, in the W-H-L. Saskatoon appeared to be cruising to the victory until Jagger Firkus and Cade Hayes scored 90 seconds apart inside the final 10 minutes of regulation to knot the score. However, Belarus import Egor Sidorov deflected Brendan Lee’s sharp-angle shot past Mirwald for the winning goal with 5:30 remaining in the game. The Bridge City Bunch ended up 3-for-4 on the power play while killing off all five Moose Jaw man advantages. The Warriors out-shot the Blue and Gold 28-20. The Blades are 4-1-1 for the season, having picked up points in the standings in each of their last five games after losing the season-opener in Moose Jaw. The Warriors continued their alternating results trend as their record dropped to 3-3-0. Saskatoon is off until Friday when they visit Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats. Following is the post-game conversation Les Lazaruk had with head coach Brennan Sonne, along with the game summary from the W-H-L…..
Saskatoon Blades 4 at Moose Jaw Warriors 3 – Status: Final
Saturday, October 16, 2021 – Mosaic Place – Moose Jaw, SK
Saskatoon 2 1 1 – 4
Moose Jaw 1 0 2 – 3
1st Period-1, Moose Jaw, Korczak 2 2:25 (SH). 2, Saskatoon, Robins 3 (Crnkovic, Wiens), 3:36 (PP). 3, Saskatoon, Elias 1 (Lisowsky, Wright), 16:20 (PP). Penalties-Doust Mj (tripping), 1:56; De La Gorgendiere Sas (tripping), 4:31; Robins Sas (holding), 12:26; served by Yager Mj (too many men), 15:43; Volotovskii Sas (slashing), 17:49; Rysavy Mj (interference), 18:09.
2nd Period-4, Saskatoon, Crnkovic 6 (Wright, Robins), 14:54 (PP). Penalties-Rysavy Mj (interference), 13:11; Elias Sas (kneeing), 15:45.
3rd Period-5, Moose Jaw, Firkus 2 (Hunt), 11:24. 6, Moose Jaw, Hayes 3 (Doust, Hunt), 12:59. 7, Saskatoon, Sidorov 2 (Lee), 14:30. Penalties-De La Gorgendiere Sas (hooking), 7:21; Shugrue Sas (roughing), 10:44; Pilling Mj (roughing), 10:44.
Shots on Goal-Saskatoon 8-7-4-19. Moose Jaw 9-9-10-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Saskatoon 3 / 4; Moose Jaw 0 / 5.
Goalies-Saskatoon, Chadwick 1-0-0-0 (28 shots-25 saves). Moose Jaw, Mirwald 0-2-0-0 (19 shots-15 saves).
A-2,501
Referees-Ben Croker, Levi Schutz (110).
Linesmen-Ryan Lundquist (106), Tarrington Wyonzek (137).
