Gardner’s Goaltending, Again, Propels Blades Into Sole Possession of First Place in the W-H-L’s East Division

The Saskatoon Blades are going into the final weekend of the W-H-L regular-season in first place in the East Division after downing the Wheat Kings 3-1 Wednesday night in Brandon.

For a third straight game, Evan Gardner’s (pictured) goaltending played a starring role in the win, with goal posts and cross bars helping out in a supporting role. On the day after the 18-year-old Fort St. John, B-C product signed a three-year N-H-L entry level contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Gardner stopped 33 shots for his sixth straight win. Brandon also nailed the iron at least four times. Gardner has only allowed eight goals in those six wins and has stopped 85 of 86 shots with two shutouts during the Bridge City Bunch’s current three-game winning streak. A third straight shutout was denied by a Luke Shipley goal in the third period with the Blue and Gold leading 2-0, ending a run of 178:06 without allowing a goal. David Lewandowski tallied twice with Rowan Calvert adding, what turned out to be the game winner as the Blades improved to 37-22-7 for 81 points – one ahead of Prince Albert and two clear of the Wheaties. Saskatoon and the Raiders hook up for a home-and-home series this weekend – Friday at SaskTel Centre and Saturday in P-A – while Brandon is home to the Pats Friday and visits Regina Saturday to close out the season. The Bridge City Bunch need at least three of a possible four points from the two games with the Raiders to ensure a second consecutive first place finish in the East Division. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Les Lazaruk’s Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Dan Da Silva and Lewandowski plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..

Game Report 1021925

Western Hockey League

PLAYED AT: Westoba Place – Brandon, MB
Date: Mar 19, 2025

Visiting Team: Saskatoon Blades
Manager:

Home Team: Brandon Wheat Kings
Manager:

SASKATOON LINEUP
Pos	No.	Name
G	33	McCallum, Ethan
G	35	Gardner, Evan
C	2	Saunderson, Ben (OA)
	3	Martin, Jordan
	4	Klimpke, Brayden
	9	Olsen, Zach
	11	Kibblewhite, Hudson
	13	Poll, Isaac
	18	Lodge, Kohen (AP)
A	20	Parr, Tyler
	21	Siepmann, Grayden (OA)
A	23	Calvert, Rowan
	25	Williams, Cooper
	26	Harsanyi, Hayden
	27	Laing, Hunter
	29	Scott, Tanner (OA)
RES	32	Dej, František
	37	Kachkowski, Jack
	52	Tastad, Morgan
	86	Lewandowski, David

SASKATOON PENALTIES
Per.	No.	Min	Offence	Off	PP	PS	Start	On
1st	29	2:00	Inter. on Goaltender	0:53	1		0:53	2:53
2nd	32	2:00	Instigator	19:58	1		19:58	1:58
2nd	32	5:00	Major-Fighting	19:58			1:58	6:58
2nd	32	10:00	10-Minute Misconduct	19:58			6:58	16:58
3rd	9	2:00	Delay of Game	19:11	1		19:11

BRANDON LINEUP
Pos	No.	Name
G	50	Eskit, Ethan
G	64	Bjarnason, Carson
	5	Ronald, Dylan
C	8	Mantei, Quinn
	9	Jacobson, Jaxon
A	10	Hadland, Caleb
	11	Gavin, Jordan
	12	Boehm, Nigel
A	13	McQueen, Roger
	14	Belusko, Adam
	17	Baumuller, Joby
	19	Klippenstein, Carter
	27	Shipley, Luke (OA)
	62	Johnson, Nicholas
	71	Turko, Brady
A	72	Nguyen, Marcus (OA)
	82	Petr, Dominik
	84	Pantelas, Giorgos
	88	Michels, Matteo
	91	Flamand, Nolan (OA)

BRANDON PENALTIES
Per.	No.	Min	Offence	Off	PP	PS	Start	On
1st	13	2:00	High Sticking	17:17	1		17:17	19:17
2nd	13	5:00	Major-Fighting	19:58			19:58	4:58
3rd	13	2:00	Roughing	19:40	1		19:40
3rd	27	2:00	Slashing	19:40	1		19:40

SASKATOON Goals				SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus)					BRANDON PLAYERS (minus)
Per.	Time		G-As1-As2
2nd	8:15		86-27-2	2	3	25	27	86	8	62	72	84	91
3rd	7:19		23	2	3	9	23	25	8	11	13	14	88
3rd	19:00	EN	86	2	21	25	27	86	8	11	13	27	72	91

BRANDON Goals			BRANDON PLAYERS (plus)					SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus)
Per.	Time	G-As1-As2
3rd	11:47	27-11-9	8	9	11	27	88	9	11	21	23	52

POWER PLAY OPPORTUNITIES
SASKATOON	0 / 3
BRANDON	0 / 3

PENALTY SUMMARY
SASKATOON	21 min / 5 inf
BRANDON	11 min / 4 inf

POINT SUMMARY
SASKATOON	3 G + 2 A = 5 Pts
BRANDON	1 G + 2 A = 3 Pts

SCORING	1	2	3	Total
SASKATOON	0	1	2	3
BRANDON	0	0	1	1

GOALTENDER/SAVES (Time)	1	2	3	Tot.	On	Off
SAS – Gardner (60:00) (W)	12	9	12	33	/0:00	3rd/20:00
BDN – Bjarnason (58:16) (L)	9	8	6	23	/0:00	3rd/18:16
BDN – Bjarnason (0:10) (L)	0	0	0	0	/19:00	3rd/19:10
BDN – Bjarnason (0:20) (L)	1	0	0	1	/19:40	3rd/20:00