A furious third period comeback came up just short as the Saskatoon Blades dropped a 5-4 decision on opening night of the 2026-27 W-H-L regular-season in Brandon.

An end of the pre-season trend continued into Game 1 of the new campaign for the Bridge City Bunch – falling behind, but showing resilience and a never say die attitude. However, the Blue and Gold have skated off the ice disappointed in all three of those types of efforts in succession. Defenceman Brayden Klimpke paced the Blades with a goal and two assists, but his goal was the only highlight of the opening 40 minutes as the Wheat Kings opened up a 4-1 lead. Saskatoon battled back in the third, out-shooting the Wheaties 23-8 and 46-30 overall. But, 19-year-old Finnish defenceman Ilari Kapanen, making his W-H-L debut, scored twice and assisted on two other Brandon goals. The Bridge City Bunch got third period power play goals from Hunter Laing and Ben Bowtell, plus a short-handed tally from Kazden Mathies. Former Blue and Gold goaltender Ryley Budd stopped 42 shots against his former team in his Wheat Kings’ debut. The Blades move on to Moose Jaw for a Saturday night contest against a Warriors’ team who weren’t in action on Friday. CJWW’s broadcast starts at 5:45 p.m. with the play-by-play at 6 o’clock. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast plus Les Lazaruk’s Post-Game Show interview with head coach Dan Da Silva and the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L website…..

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) BRANDON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 10:11  4 4 6 27 37 77 12 17 19 93 96 3rd 1:34 PP  27-16-4 3rd 8:38 PP  71-6-4 3rd 15:36 SH  77-37 16 37 56 77 6 9 13 17 89

BRANDON Goals BRANDON PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 1:14  11-89-27 11 13 27 89 96 3 6 37 55 88 1st 13:56  13 6 11 13 24 89 3 4 16 27 77 1st 18:55  27-96-7 7 9 17 27 96 6 27 37 56 88 2nd 13:56  14-22-27 12 14 22 27 91 2 4 16 27 77 3rd 7:10  27-12-93 12 19 27 91 93 16 41 55 56 77