The Saskatoon Blades got all the offence they needed in about a six-minute span Wednesday night, then locked it down on defence to beat the Raiders 4-1 in Prince Albert.
The result gives the Bridge City Bunch a 3-1 advantage in the best-of-seven W-H-L Eastern Conference quarter-final series with a chance to advance and eliminate P-A on Friday at SaskTel Centre. The Blue and Gold opened the scoring for the fourth time in four tries in the series when Easton Armstrong snuck a quick shot through the pads of Max Hildebrand and just over the goal-line with just 1.7 seconds remaining in the first period on a power play. The advantage became 3-0 by 6:03 of the second period when Misha Volotovskii and Tanner Molendyk found the mark on Hildebrand. After that the Blades attempted to play keep-away and made sure there were no odd-man rushes for the Raiders on the way to out-shooting Prince Albert 36-16. Ryder Ritchie gave the Raiders and the crowd of 2,926 fans at the Art Hauser Centre a thrill of hope with an early third period goal, but that was as close as P-A got as Egor Sidorov closed out the scoring into an empty net. CJWW’s broadcast of Game 5 on Friday begins at 6:45 p.m. with the Palliser Rooms E-Q-3 Cutting Edge Pre-Game Show and the play-by-play at 7 p.m. Following are the audio highlights from Wednesday’s broadcast on CJWW plus Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Brennan Sonne and Volotovskii plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..
Saskatoon Blades 4 at Prince Albert Raiders 1 – Status: Final
Wednesday, April 3, 2024 – Art Hauser Centre – Prince Albert, SK
Saskatoon 1 2 1 – 4
Prince Albert 0 0 1 – 1
1st Period-1, Saskatoon, Armstrong 5 (Suzdalev, Wright), 19:58 (PP). Penalties-Kovacs Pa (holding), 8:18; Armstrong Sas (slashing), 10:15; Christensen Pa (tripping), 18:58.
2nd Period-2, Saskatoon, Volotovskii 1 3:00. 3, Saskatoon, Molendyk 1 (Volotovskii, James), 6:03. Penalties-No Penalties
3rd Period-4, Prince Albert, Ritchie 3 (Oiring, Christensen), 4:02 (PP). 5, Saskatoon, Sidorov 4 17:59 (EN). Penalties-Sidorov Sas (unsportsmanlike cnd., roughing), 3:10; Goldsmith Pa (roughing), 3:10.
Shots on Goal-Saskatoon 14-11-11-36. Prince Albert 5-6-5-16.
Power Play Opportunities-Saskatoon 1 / 2; Prince Albert 1 / 2.
Goalies-Saskatoon, Gardner (16 shots-15 saves). Prince Albert, Hildebrand (35 shots-32 saves).
A-2,926
Referees-Mike Langin (67), Ty Skene (19).
Linesmen-Brayden Glynn (96), Devan Thiessen (94).
