The Blades will play host to the Medicine Hat Tigers on Friday night and Brandon Wheat Kings on Sunday afternoon at SaskTel Centre where the team is 19-1-1-0 this season.
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The longest home-stand of the season continues for the Saskatoon Blades.
The Blades will host the Medicine Hat Tigers on Friday night and Brandon Wheat Kings on Sunday afternoon at SaskTel Centre, where the team is 19-1-1-0 this season.
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Game-time is 7 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Sunday.
The Blades will try to tame the Tigers, who are second in the Western Hockey League’s Eastern Conference with a 29-14-3-1 record and 62 points.
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“They play a Medicine Hat Tigers hockey and they’re to compete (against) — they can put eight, nine, 10 (goals) on you, so you’ve got to defend and be ready,” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne.
On Wednesday night, eight different players scored goals and 16 players recorded at least one point on the score sheet as the Blades trounced the visiting Regina Pats 9-1 in what was their final meeting of the season.
It was their sixth win over the Pats in eight meetings this season.
Saskatoon — No. 1 in the CHL top-10 rankings this week — improved its Western Hockey League-leading record to 34-9-2-3.
“All in all, there’s room for improvement,” said head coach Brennan Sonne. “We’re a work in progress, but there are some really good signs, for sure.”
Hudson Kibblewhite had a pair of goals for the Blades, who led 3-0 and 6-0 by periods. Misha Volotovskii, Egor Sidorov, Vaughn Watterodt, Brandon Lisowsky, Easton Armstrong, Ben Saunderson and Fraser Minten added singles.
Corban Almen replied for Regina, who were out-shot 37-31 overall.
The Pats and Blades have played each other more than 20 times since the beginning of last season, with the Blades going 8-4-0 in their last 12 games together.
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SIDOROV SCORES 100th CAREER GOAL
Sidorov scored what was his 100th WHL career goal on Wednesday.
He’s the 30th player in Blades franchise history to accomplish that feat.
The Blades sniper beat Pats starting goalie Ewan Huet on a hard, low shot with only 24 seconds remaining in the first period.
He also collected two assists on the night.
The NHL Anaheim Ducks prospect now has 37 goals and 26 assists for 63 points in 46 games this season.
“All the stuff you see on the ice — the highlight-goals, all that stuff — obviously we see it too, but when I’m working with him every day, I just see the biggest personality I’ve ever coached.
“There’s nothing I can say other than, as a staff and me personally, we just love him. We really do.”
ROOKIE GARDNER STELLAR IN NET
Rookie Evan Gardner stopped 30 of 31 shots for the win before a crowd announced at 3,625 fans.
“Gards (Gardner) saved our bacon in the first because we gave them so much,” said Sonne, whose team was outshot 15-10 in the first period.
“We come out of that period up 3-0 and we’re looking at each other, ‘that’s not a 3-nothing period. We could have been down 3-0, frankly. He saved our bacon and gave us time to catch up to speed.”
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ARMSTRONG CONTINUES HIS STREAK
Over-ager Easton Armstrong extended his point streak to four games with one goal and one assist Wednesday.
He now has 26 goals and 18 assists for 44 points this season.
Armstrong, a former Pat, was acquired by the Blades on Oct. 10 from the Wenatchee Wild. He has 20 goals and 35 points in 40 games with Saskatoon.
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