The Saskatoon Blades are in a pretty good spot moving forward after completing their season-longest seven-game road trip by topping the Hurricanes 3-1 in Lethbridge Friday.
The Bridge City Bunch were playing their seventh game in 11 days and were without top defenceman Tanner Molendyk due to injury. The roster situation was compounded late in the second period when recently-acquired Fraser Minten was given a game misconduct in addition to a five-minute major penalty for kneeing. Add in the fact that the Canes were playing in front of a sold-out crowd of 5,254 on their “Teddy Bear Toss” Night and the Blue and Gold were up against it all night. But they persevered, thanks to goals from Easton Armstrong, Egor Sidorov (pictured) and Brandon Lisowsky plus 27 saves from Austin Elliott in goal. Sidorov’s goal broke a 1-1 tie early in the third period, his seventh game winner of the season, while Armstrong opened the scoring after a scoreless opening period and Lisowsky hit an empty Lethbridge net to give the Blades a 4-2-1 record for the swing and an overall mark of 19-8-1. Miguel Marques touched off the Teddy Bear Toss when he scored at 12:58 of the second period to tie the game. The goal created a 21-minute delay while the bears, stuffed animals, toques, scarves and mittens were cleared from the ice surface and it was dry-scraped by two Zambonis. Saskatoon owns a five-point lead atop the Eastern Conference over Medicine Hat and a six-point edge over second place Moose Jaw in the East Division. The Blades have 40 games remaining in the regular-season, 25 of them at SaskTel Centre, where they have an 8-1-0 record. The first of those home games is Friday when Red Deer visits. 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 3 at Lethbridge Hurricanes 1 – Status: Final
Friday, December 1, 2023 – Enmax Centre – Lethbridge, AB
Saskatoon 0 1 2 – 3
Lethbridge 0 1 0 – 1
1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Klimpke Sas (playing w/broken st.), 5:00; Parr Sas (tripping), 17:14.
2nd Period-1, Saskatoon, Armstrong 15 (Wong, Sidorov), 0:46. 2, Lethbridge, Marques 12 (Sharpe, Zimmer), 12:58. Penalties-Swetlikoff Let (tripping), 6:05; Renas Let (tripping), 15:04; Wong Sas (inter. on goaltender), 15:49; Minten Sas (major-kneeing, game misconduct, major-fighting), 16:37; Zimmer Let (unsportsmanlike cnd., major-fighting), 16:37.
3rd Period-3, Saskatoon, Sidorov 25 (Wong), 2:05. 4, Saskatoon, Lisowsky 16 19:56 (EN). Penalties-served by Renas Let (too many men), 10:17; Armstrong Sas (hooking), 10:39.
Shots on Goal-Saskatoon 11-14-8-33. Lethbridge 9-8-11-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Saskatoon 0 / 3; Lethbridge 0 / 5.
Goalies-Saskatoon, Elliott 13-4-1-0 (28 shots-27 saves). Lethbridge, Meneghin 13-9-2-0 (32 shots-30 saves).
A-5,254
Referees-Brody McGrath (73), Adam Forbes (62).
Linesmen-Matthew Lattimer (57), Michael Roberts (87).
