WHL Saskatoon Blades

Blades Drop 5-4 Battle to Ice

Published on January 22, 2010 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Saskatoon Blades News Release


The Saskatoon Blades suffered a 5-4 setback at the hands of the hottest team in the WHL, the Kootenay Ice, on Friday evening at Credit Union Centre.

Stefan Elliott (North Vancouver, BC), Gaelan Patterson (Saskatoon, SK), Sena Acolatse (Edmonton, AB), Randy McNaught (Nanaimo, BC) scored for the Blades, who saw their streak of four straight games having earned a point come to an end.

Kootenay - 1st - Dustin Sylvester (Steele Boomer, Kevin King) 5:30 pp Sylvester put the Ice on the board first with his 26th on the campaign. The overage forward spun and fired a loose puck from the hash marks that snuck through the five-hole on goaltender Adam Morrison (White Rock, BC) and it was 1-0.

Saskatoon - 1st - Elliott (Duncan Siemens, Marek Viedensky) 6:32 Almost exactly a minute later, Elliott brought the Blades even on his 18th of the year. The third-year defenseman fired a puck from the right point that hit a body in front and bounced past goaltender Todd Mathews into the Kootenay net.

Kootenay - 2nd - Matt Fraser (Max Reinhart) 4:50 pp The Ice went back up by one after a Blades' clearing attempt took a bad bounce off an official. Reinhart grabbed the loose puck and fired a pass to Fraser, who put home his 20th of the season.

Saskatoon - 2nd - Patterson (Hulak) 6:05 Patterson evened the score on his 16th goal of the year again coming just over a minute later when the 19-year-old knocked in a bouncing puck at the side of the net.

Saskatoon - 2nd - Acolatse (Elliott, Sam Klassen) 6:52 The Blades took their first lead of the hockey game only 47 seconds later on Acolatse's 15th of the season. In similar fashion to the Blades' first period goal, Elliott took a point shot that was redirected in front and this time Acolatse got credit to make 3-2.

Kootenay - 3rd - Sylvester 4:06 sh-ps After being pulled down on a breakaway, Sylvester earned a chance on a penalty shot to bring his team even. The WHL's fourth leading scorer coming into the game moved in, deked to his backhand, and slid one under Morrison's pad for his second of the night and 27th of the season.

Kootenay - 3rd - Fraser (Jesse Ismond) 14:47 Fraser regained the lead for Kootenay on his second of the night when he fired a wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle that handcuffed Morrison glove side to make it 4-3.

Kootenay - 3rd - Fraser 18:59 en Fraser completed the hat-trick with an empty netter with just over a minute left. The third-year forward beat a Blades' defenseman to a loose puck and picked the far post on the yawning cage.

Saskatoon - 3rd - McNaught (Siemens, Walker Wintoneak) 19:30 McNaught closed out the scoring with 30 seconds remaining after tipping in a Siemens' (Sherwood Park, AB) point shot past a screened Mathews for his 4th on the campaign.

Morrison made 16 saves in a losing cause in the Blades' net. Mathews picked up the win in the Kootenay goal after turning aside 44 of 48 shots.

Final score Kootenay Ice 5, Saskatoon Blades 4.

The loss drops the Blades' record to 32-10-2-3 for 69 points on the season. With the win, Kootenay picks up its 14th consecutive victory and improves to 30-15-1-2 for 63 points on the season.

Check out the Saskatoon Blades Statistics

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Western Hockey League Stories from January 22, 2010


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