The Western Hockey League’s pre-season schedules wound up Saturday for both the Saskatoon Blades and Regina Pats with a wild and highly-offensive contest – offensive both in terms of goals scored and the way coaches would likely feel about their respective team’s defensive showing.

The Bridge City Bunch battled back from 4-0 and 5-1 deficits to force overtime, but ended up losing 7-6 on a goal at 4:01 of the extra period by Martensville product Cohen Klassen. The just-turned 18-year-old centre finished with two goals and an assist while highly-regarded 16-year-old prospect winger Liam Pue chipped in with three helpers to pace the Pats. The Blue and Gold will need to have better wake-up calls in the regular season than what they’ve been getting in their just-completed pre-season. For a second straight game, Saskatoon fell behind by multiple goals, then battled back to force overtime before losing. Regina finished their pre-season with a perfect 7-0-0 record, jumping out to leads of 4-0 and 5-1 through the first 30 minutes before 19-year-old forward Kazden Mathies put the Blades on his back for the comeback. Mathies ended up with a five-point night – three goals and two assists. Hunter Laing and Jack Kachkowski each posted a goal and an assist for the Bridge City Bunch while 16-year-old winger Kain Martiniuk scored with 2:34 remaining in regulation time to force O-T. It was a tough night for the goaltenders – Taye Timmerman of the Blue and Gold and Drake Mooney for the Regiment – as Regina out-shot the Blue and Gold 31-27. Saskatoon finished the pre-season with a 2-1-and-2 record. They’ll open the regular campaign next weekend on the road with games Friday in Brandon and Saturday in Moose Jaw. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast plus Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Dan Da Silva, Laing and Mathies – as well as the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L website…..

REGINA Goals REGINA PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 4:52 PP  32-18-23 1st 6:04  28-46 28 42 44 46 52 23 37 55 66 77 1st 13:44  18-37-38 18 20 23 37 38 2 6 27 37 88 2nd 5:37  28-13-19 13 19 23 28 37 2 3 6 27 88 2nd 13:27  37-10 10 13 26 37 44 2 20 25 56 67 3rd 7:45  38-13-11 4 11 13 20 24 38 20 23 25 37 67 OT 4:01  37-13 13 37 44 20 56 88

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) REGINA PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 2nd 12:32 PP  27-37-77 2nd 16:13 PP  77-27 2nd 18:24 PP  37-77 2nd 19:39  77 2 6 56 77 10 23 37 44 3rd 16:56 PS  77 77 3rd 17:26  88-41 25 41 55 56 88 10 13 18 26 32