Another less than adequete first period performance was the Saskatoon Blades’ undoing Friday night in a 4-2 loss to the visiting Red Deer Rebels.

Red Deer ended a seven-game, head-to-head, losing streak against the Bridge City Bunch – dating back to December 4, 2024. Saskatoon product and Colorado draft pick forward Beckett Hamilton sparked the Rebels to a 3-0 lead in the opening 6:13 of the contest, before 8,414 fans at SaskTel Centre, scoring the game’s first goal and assisting on Poul Anderson’s two tallies. At that point, Red Deer was out-shooting the Blue and Gold 9-1. While Yegor Gusev and Brayden Klimpke were able to respond for the Blades in the second period, Rebels’ goaltender Matthew Kondro and Red Deer’s penalty-killing unit held Saskatoon at bay in the third period as the visitors improved their record to 3-2-1. Klimpke also assisted on Gusev’s first Western Hockey League goal. The Bridge City Bunch ended up out-shooting the Rebels 29-27 as the Blue and Gold’s record dropped to 2-2-1. The Blades have been out-scored 10-4 in first periods through their first five games, but have out-scored opponents 16-10 in the final two periods and overtime to date. Saskatoon is idle until next weekend when they host Moose Jaw Friday and Regina Saturday. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Dan Da Silva and Klimpke plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L’s website…..

RED DEER Goals RED DEER PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 2:53  21-16-28 2 15 16 21 28 19 20 25 37 56 1st 3:29  11-21 7 10 11 18 21 4 16 27 41 77 1st 6:13  11-21-10 3 10 11 21 28 6 11 43 56 66 2nd 7:15  9-2-18 2 9 14 18 28 2 16 27 37 77

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) RED DEER PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 2nd 11:45  66-11-4 2 4 6 11 66 2 8 12 20 28 2nd 18:21 PP  4-16-27