The Saskatoon Blades are heading out on the road, buoyed by a three-game winning streak after Egor Sidorov’s hat-trick and timely scoring in general propelled the Bridge City Bunch to a 6-2 triumph over the Regina Pats Saturday at SaskTel Centre.
A 17-year-old rookie from Belarus, Sidorov opened the game’s scoring, notched an insurance goal within two minutes of Regina reducing the Blue and Gold’s lead to one goal early in the third period, then completed his first W-H-L hat-trick with a power play goal in the dying seconds of the third period. Despite losing their 10th consecutive game on the road and seeing their overall record drop to 17-23-2, the Pats gave the Blades all they could handle, thanks to a goal and an assist from 16-year-old exceptional star forward Connor Bedard. But, former Regina draft pick Tristen Robins gave the Saskatoon the lead for good late in the second period and captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere beat the buzzer to end the second period on the power play, giving the Bridge City Bunch a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes. Kyle Crnkovic added an empty-net marker for his 30th goal of the season as the Blue and Gold won four of five games on their season-longest homestand and improved their overall record to 26-16-2 while winning for a fourth time in as many times this season over the Pats with only two head-to-head meetings remaining. Both teams had 30 shots on goal with Nolan Maier stopping 28 for his 22nd win of the season and 113th of his career, seven victories short of the league record for career goaltending wins, co-held by Corey Hirsch and Tyson Sexsmith. The Blades begin a stretch of five road games in eight nights next Friday in Red Deer with other stops in Edmonton, Calgary and Brandon for two meetings with the Wheat Kings. Following is the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L plus CJWW’s Post-Game Show interviews with Saskatoon head coach Brennan Sonne, Sidorov and De La Gorgendiere…..
Regina Pats 2 at Saskatoon Blades 6 – Status: Final
Saturday, February 12, 2022 – SaskTel Centre – Saskatoon, SK
Regina 1 0 1 – 2
Saskatoon 1 2 3 – 6
1st Period-1, Saskatoon, Sidorov 12 15:22. 2, Regina, Bedard 29 15:37. Penalties-Gronick Sas (cross checking), 7:22; Evans Reg (interference), 8:09; Nolan Sas (tripping), 11:54.
2nd Period-3, Saskatoon, Robins 21 (Lisowsky), 16:12. 4, Saskatoon, De La Gorgendiere 5 (Crnkovic, Robins), 19:59 (PP). Penalties-Evans Reg (high sticking), 9:23; Salame Reg (slashing), 19:40.
3rd Period-5, Regina, Howe 17 (Bedard), 0:22. 6, Saskatoon, Sidorov 13 (Wong, Lisowsky), 1:58. 7, Saskatoon, Crnkovic 30 19:03 (EN). 8, Saskatoon, Sidorov 14 (Parr, Gronick), 19:45 (PP). Penalties-Bateman Reg (hooking), 8:25; Svozil Reg (hooking), 12:01; Robins Sas (roughing), 12:01; Berge Reg (checking to the head), 19:37.
Shots on Goal-Regina 11-6-13-30. Saskatoon 7-9-14-30.
Power Play Opportunities-Regina 0 / 2; Saskatoon 2 / 5.
Goalies-Regina, Welke 0-1-0-0 (16 shots-13 saves); Pyne 1-1-0-0 (13 shots-11 saves). Saskatoon, Maier 22-13-1-1 (30 shots-28 saves).
A-3,813
Referees-Adam Bloski (16), Adam Forbes (62).
Linesmen-Andrew Sawatsky (123), Levi Schutz (110).
