The Saskatoon Blades were successful in their first attempt at flipping home-ice advantage in their W-H-L playoff series with the Oil Kings, recording an upset 3-2 victory Friday night in Edmonton.

There wasn’t a lot of five-on-five play as referees Brody McGrath and Brian McDonald didn’t hesitate to penalize any players for engaging in after-the-whistle scrums and skirmishes involving pushing and shoving. There were 52 minutes in penalties, 27 to the Oil Kings, with only one fight and 21 minor infractions. The teams only played 33:33 of the 60 minutes at 5-on-5. There was also a penalty shot goal as Hunter Laing opened the scoring late in the first period following a play in which he was hooked from behind with nothing between him with the puck and Edmonton goaltender Parker Snell. From there, captain Tyler Parr (pictured) became the star for the Bridge City Bunch, scoring a power play goal that put the Blue and Gold for good and assisting on Hayden Harsanyi’s tally that turned out to be the eventual game winner. Parr also made a saving defensive play in the final minute of the third period with the Oil Kings pressing for the tying goal, deflecting a cross-crease pass away from Edmonton’s leading point-getter during the regular season in Lukas Sawchyn. Kaeden Stroeder on the power play and Landon Hansen shorthanded replied for E-O-K, who were out-shot 30-21 at home by the underdog Blades. In the first playoff game between the Saskatoon Blades and Edmonton Oil Kings since 1971, So, Saskatoon leads 1-0 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final series with Game 2 Sunday at 2 p.m. in Edmonton. CJWW’s broadcast starts at 1:45 with pre-game set-up. Games 3 and 4 will be Tuesday and Wednesday at SaskTel Centre. 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) EDMONTON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 15:42 PS  27 27 2nd 8:28 PP  20-4-9 3rd 6:17  26-20-23 4 20 23 26 37 3 23 24 27 47

EDMONTON Goals EDMONTON PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 2nd 5:09 PP  10-3-43 3rd 17:01 SH  23-47 3 23 43 47 4 9 11 16 23