A three-goal outburst in a 1:45 span before the game was six minutes old allowed the Saskatoon Blades to slice past the Kamloops Blazers 5-1 Wednesday night.
Lukas Hansen (pictured), Brandon Lisowsky and Easton Armstrong scored on the Bridge City Bunch’s third, fourth and sixth shots on goal of the game, enough “run support” for rookie Evan Gardner in goal as the Blue and Gold recorded their seventh straight win overall, their seventh consecutive victory at SaskTel Centre and improved their overall record to 23-8-1. Morgan Tastad and Egor Sidorov added goals for the Blades as they ended an eight-game winless streak, head-to-head, against Kamloops dating back to October, 2012. It was, also, Saskatoon’s first home-ice triumph over the Blazers since 2009, a string of five consecutive losses. Only Harrison Brunicke could solve Gardner, late in the second period. It was a game with a patch-work line-up for the Blades as centre Fraser Minten and defenceman Tanner Molendyk are away with Team Canada for the upcoming World Junior Championship, blueliner Samuel Barcik is attempting to make Slovakia’s World Juniors squad, D-men Grayden Siepmann and Carter Herman plus forward Vaughan Watterodt are sidelined by injury. Defenceman Nick Andrusiak made his Saskatoon debut after being acquired Tuesday from Red Deer while 16-year-old affiliate blue-liners Jordan Martin and Brayden Klimpke both saw action. The Bridge City Bunch are off until Saturday when they play their final game before an 11-day Christmas break as they host the Kelowna Rockets at 7 o’clock. CJWW’s broadcast begins at 6:45 p.m. with the Palliser Rooms E-Q-3 Cutting Edge Pre-Game Show. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, plus Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Brennan Sonne, Hansen and Andrusiak and the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..
Kamloops Blazers 1 at Saskatoon Blades 5 – Status: Final
Wednesday, December 13, 2023 – SaskTel Centre – Saskatoon, SK
Kamloops 0 1 0 – 1
Saskatoon 3 1 1 – 5
1st Period-1, Saskatoon, Hansen 9 (Saunderson), 3:48. 2, Saskatoon, Lisowsky 17 (Wong, Sidorov), 4:37. 3, Saskatoon, Armstrong 17 (Tastad, Melnyk), 5:33. Penalties-Behm Kam (tripping), 1:42; served by Armstrong Sas (too many men), 15:40.
2nd Period-4, Saskatoon, Tastad 2 (Armstrong, Wright), 11:59. 5, Kamloops, Brunicke 5 (Sydor, Levis), 17:17. Penalties-Andrusiak Sas (roughing), 4:17; Tastad Sas (slashing), 6:14.
3rd Period-6, Saskatoon, Sidorov 30 (Lisowsky, Wong), 18:55 (EN). Penalties-Wright Sas (hooking), 11:31.
Shots on Goal-Kamloops 8-11-6-25. Saskatoon 11-5-10-26.
Power Play Opportunities-Kamloops 0 / 4; Saskatoon 0 / 1.
Goalies-Kamloops, Ernst 5-13-1-2 (25 shots-21 saves). Saskatoon, Gardner 8-4-0-0 (25 shots-24 saves).
A-3,184
Referees-Alex Homer (49), Brian MacDonald (7).
Linesmen-Ridge Brooks (161), Devan Thiessen (94).
