It was a night for secondary scoring, ending goal-less droughts and delaying the “Teddy Bear Toss” in Kelowna.
All of that was performed by the Saskatoon Blades, yet it required a breakaway goal from Dawson Davidson (pictured), 23 seconds into overtime before the Bridge City Bunch vanquished the 12-15-2 Rockets 5-4. The tally was the second of the night for the 20-year-old defenceman…an earlier power play goal ended a 17-game goal-less drought for the Moosomin product. Gary Haden opened the scoring, putting the brakes to a seven-game goal-less skid, Tristen Robins notched a goal after going four games without and overage blueliner Brandon Schuldhaus snapped a 14-game goal-less drought.
The Blue and Gold built a 3-0 lead before a minute and a half had elapsed in the second period…chasing 17-year-old Roman Basran from the Kelowna net. However, Mark Liwiski started the first of two Rockets’ rallies…touching off the Teddy Bear Toss by scoring off a rebound at 10:29 of the second period. Kyle Topping completed the Kelowna comeback from deficits of 3-0 and 4-2 by forcing overtime with 1:21 to play in the third period.
The victory upped the Blades’ record to 17-9-3, completing the B.C. Division road trip with a 3-1-1 record…the best of the four East Division teams (Swift Current, 0-5-0; Brandon, 2-2-1; Regina, 1-4-0) to have made the trek so far.
“Ten out of 10 is always best, but seven (points) out of 10 is an excellent road trip,” deadpanned Saskatoon assistant coach Jerome Engele. “Anytime you can go on the road and split, to me that’s a good thing. Here, we did better than that so I think it’s an excellent trip. Plus, I think our guys learned a lot about themselves and we’ve improved a lot from when where we were 10 days ago.”
The Bridge City Bunch return home to host the Moose Jaw Warriors Friday at SaskTel Centre. Following is the official game summary from the W-H-L…
Saskatoon Blades 5 (OT) at Kelowna Rockets 4 – Status: Final OT
Saturday, December 1, 2018 – Prospera Place – Kelowna, BC
Saskatoon 2 1 1 1 – 5
Kelowna 0 1 3 0 – 4
1st Period-1, Saskatoon, Haden 7 (Paterson), 11:27. 2, Saskatoon, Robins 4 (Roykas Marthinsen, McKay), 12:31. Penalties-Wouters Sas (cross checking), 0:58; Florchuk Sas (tripping), 7:13; Gardiner Kel (tripping), 17:20; Florchuk Sas (hooking), 17:40; Korczak Kel (holding), 19:59.
2nd Period-3, Saskatoon, Davidson 5 (Florchuk, Gerlach), 1:32 (PP). 4, Kelowna, Liwiski 2 (Steffler, Gally), 10:29. Penalties-McKay Sas (roughing), 2:59; Gally Kel (roughing), 2:59; Kaddoura Sas (interference), 6:02; Chizen Kel (holding), 16:44.
3rd Period-5, Kelowna, Mattson 12 (Foote, Topping), 3:30. 6, Saskatoon, Schuldhaus 3 (Crnkovic, Wouters), 14:57 (PP). 7, Kelowna, Chizen 1 (Ernst, Zabransky), 15:22. 8, Kelowna, Topping 12 (Zablocki), 18:39. Penalties-Robins Sas (holding), 10:52; Bruggen-Cate Kel (embellishment), 10:52; Crosbie Kel (high sticking), 13:04.
OT Period-9, Saskatoon, Davidson 6 (Haden), 0:23. Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Saskatoon 11-13-10-1-35. Kelowna 10-12-11-0-33.
Power Play Opportunities-Saskatoon 2 / 4; Kelowna 0 / 4.
Goalies-Saskatoon, Maier 14-7-2-0 (33 shots-29 saves). Kelowna, Basran 9-9-1-0 (14 shots-11 saves); Porter 3-6-1-0 (21 shots-19 saves).
A-5,104
Referees-Brayden Arcand (71), Troy Paterson (60).
Linesmen-Dustin Minty (86), Cody Wanner (56).