The Saskatoon Blades finished a three games-in-three nights weekend with three of a possible six points. You can excuse the Bridge City Bunch if they felt the other three points were ripped away from them!
Cole Dubinsky scored at 3:29 of overtime to give the Regina Pats a 4-3 victory Sunday over the Blue and Gold, who were left fuming as Dubinsky was able to get free in the slot to beat Koen MacInnes to the glove side after appearing to get help in getting loose when defenceman Nikita Sedov threw a pick on Dubinsky’s check, Riley McKay of the Blades.
“I agree with you on that,” said Saskatoon associate coach Ryan Marsh when asked if picks were allowed in basketball, not hockey. “I think there was definitely a little bit of a pick (used) there on the overtime goal.”
On Saturday, the Bridge City Bunch were victimized in a 3-2 loss to visiting Edmonton by a missed offside call on the Oil Kings’ tying goal and an icing that shouldn’t have been waived off just before the winning goal was scored.
However, Marsh didn’t totally point to the tainted O-T winner as being the reason for the Blue and Gold picking up just one point in the standings from the Sunday visit to the Queen City.
“We put ourselves in that situation to be in overtime,” explained Marsh. “If we, maybe, could’ve played a little bit better earlier on in that game, maybe we’re not in that situation for those things to happen.”
Indeed, the Blades never led in the contest against a Regina team that had lost four straight games coming in and sit well outside of a playoff spot. The Pats led 2-0 after the first period and 3-2 in the third, only to have Saskatoon battle back thanks to goals from Tristen Robins, Scott Walford and Radek Kucerik. For a second straight game, the Bridge City Bunch went 0-for-6 on the power play while out-shooting Regina 36-22. The Blue and Gold have failed to score on their last 13 man advantages. Conversely, the Blades killed off all three Pats’ power play chances…extending their streak of not allowing a man advantage score to 19 chances against them.
Saskatoon, and their 23-19-4 record, has Monday off, but are back in action Tuesday for the biennial visit of the Victoria Royals. Game time is 7 p.m. at SaskTel Centre with the broadcast on 98-COOL beginning at 6 with the Sardinia Family Restaurant pre-game show. Following is the official game summary from the W-H-L…
Saskatoon Blades 3 at Regina Pats 4 (OT) – Status: Final OT
Sunday, January 26, 2020 – Brandt Centre – Regina, SK
Saskatoon 0 1 2 0 – 3
Regina 2 0 1 1 – 4
1st Period-1, Regina, Denomie 16 (Pratt, Carrier), 8:25. 2, Regina, Holmes 18 (Krane, Evans), 19:51. Penalties-Pratt Reg (holding opp. stick), 1:53; served by Denomie Reg (too many men), 6:02; Wouters Sas (interference), 14:46.
2nd Period-3, Saskatoon, Robins 22 (Kneen, Crnkovic), 14:01. Penalties-Schmidt Sas (roughing), 3:46; Pratt Reg (hooking), 12:22; Rhinehart Sas (slashing, 10-minute misconduct), 12:59; Nijhoff Reg (holding), 15:17.
3rd Period-4, Saskatoon, Walford 10 (Crnkovic, Dach), 7:08. 5, Regina, Krane 12 (Nijhoff), 8:14. 6, Saskatoon, Kucerik 3 (Morozoff), 10:27. Penalties-Evans Reg (kneeing), 2:36; Carrier Reg (hooking), 17:43.
OT Period-7, Regina, Dubinsky 3 (Nijhoff, Sedov), 3:29. Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Saskatoon 10-11-12-3-36. Regina 9-4-5-4-22.
Power Play Opportunities-Saskatoon 0 / 6; Regina 0 / 3.
Goalies-Saskatoon, MacInnes 8-5-1-0 (22 shots-18 saves). Regina, Buskey 3-6-0-0 (36 shots-33 saves).
A-4,714
Referees-Adam Bloski (16), Steve Papp (17).
Linesmen-Sean Dufour (50), Josh Long (126).
