Photo courtesy of Perry Bergson/Brandon Sun

So far this season, there has been no – winner, winner, chicken dinner finishes for the Saskatoon Blades in overtime.

Defenceman Cole Slobodian scored 15 seconds into the extra frame Saturday to give home-standing Brandon a 3-2 triumph over the Bridge City Bunch. The Blue and Gold have lost all four games decided in O-T while the Wheat Kings are the reverse of that, winning all four times. The result evokes two diametrically different thoughts from Blades’ observers. Cynics would look at Saskatoon’s inability to score on any of three power play chances with all 13 shots on goal on the nine minutes worth of man advantage being stopped by Wheaties’ goaltender Filip Ruzicka. One of the power play chances was for five minutes in the second period when Brandon forward Prabh Bhathal checked Bridge City Bunch defenceman Tyrone Sobry from behind near the boards with the Saskatoon product’s face slammed onto the dasher board. Luckily, Sobry came away with seven stitches just above the bridge of his nose. The Blue and Gold also had a pair of two-minute man advantages in the third period after Kazden Mathies tied the score at 2-2, but couldn’t find the back of the net again. The positive person would say the Blades had a successful weekend, picking up three of a possible four points – winning 4-3 at SaskTel Centre on Friday over Calgary, then traveling all the way to Brandon for Saturday’s contest.  Ben Bowtell had the other Blades’ goal (pictured) while Saskatoon was short-handed late in the first period. The Blue and Gold out-shot the Wheat Kings 38-37. It was the ninth straight game involving the Bridge City Bunch that the margin of victory was one goal or two goals, including an empty net tally. It was also the sixth straight game in which the Blue and Gold opened the scoring, but the fifth time in which they allowed the second goal – coming out on the losing end of the score in all five of those games. Saskatoon is now 7-5-4 for the season, going into a five-game homestand that starts Tuesday with Regina paying a visit. The Bridge City Bunch are 6-1-1 at SaskTel Centre so far this season. Following are audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast plus Les Lazaruk’s post-game show conversation with acting head coach Andrew Sarauer 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 16:41 SH  71-77-56 4 56 71 77 7 9 16 17 77 3rd 8:19  77-41-11 11 41 57 66 77 2 6 19 23 93

BRANDON Goals BRANDON PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 2nd 14:15  9-16 6 9 16 77 89 4 6 55 57 66 2nd 19:31  89-16 2 9 12 16 89 4 11 27 57 77 OT :15  2-9-11 2 9 11 4 27 77