Sports stats



WHL Saskatoon Blades

Blades Improve to 3-0 After 10-Round Shootout Thriller

September 30, 2018 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Saskatoon Blades News Release


Saskatoon, Sask - The Blades have finally defeated the Medicine Hat Tigers for the first time since the 2016-2017 campaign. The win came in the 10th round of a shootout and is the Blades third straight win to start the season, the first time the team has done so since 2011.

The first period didn't start off the way the Blades wanted it to when Tigers captain James Hamblin found the back of the net just 3:05 into the first period. The middle of the first period was extremely quiet with Medicine Hat taking one penalty after the first goal of the game, up until 11:06 into the frame when Josh Paterson and Chase Wouters went down on a 2-on-1, Paterson gave a beautiful pass over to Wouters and the captain made no mistake by putting the puck past Mads Sogaard, giving Wouters his first of the season. Unfortunately for the Blades, a mere 79 seconds later, James Hamblin answered back with his second of the night.

Off to the second period, which resembled a lot of the middle of the first and ended with no scoring. The highlight of the second period came around the 13-minute mark when Blades goaltender Nolan Maier stopped an initial shot on goal, the rebound came back out where a Tigers player put it back on net but Maier kicked out his pad to deny what could of been a given goal.

The third period started off on a better note. The energy inside SaskTel Centre increased both on the ice and in the stands thanks to Kristian Roykas-Marthinsen's first WHL goal. It came just 1:03 into the final frame to tie the game at 2-2 with Josh Paterson and Jake Kustra adding the assists. The pesky Tigers weren't letting the Blades take all the momentum of the third period though, when 8:48 into the frame Hayden Ostir scored his first goal of the season on the powerplay. With the visiting side leading, the Blades were in full desperation mode trying to tie the game up once again. Then with 3:17 remaining in the game, the Tigers' Henrik Rybinski took a minor penalty for tripping giving the Blades what looked like one last chance on the powerplay. The face-off came to the left of Medicine Hat's goal for the start of the powerplay. Erik Florchuk then won the draw back to Max Gerlach who one-timed the puck right passed Tiger's goaltender Sogaard to tie the game, just 2 seconds into the man advantage.

Gerlach's 4th of the season sent the game to overtime, and although there was numerous chances for both teams, it was the goaltenders who owned the fourth period. Queue the shootout... Round 1 saw both the Blades' Kirby Dach and the Tigers' James Hamblin find the back of the net. Then cam seven additional rounds of shooters before Dawson Davidson tickled the twine to put the Blades ahead by 1 in the shootout. Bryan Lockner went down for Medicine Hat and equalled the playing field by putting one past Nolan Maier and giving the Tigers life again. Next up, Riley McKay for the Blades. Known for his physical role on the ice, McKay has found a knack for scoring in the last couple weeks. The Swan River, Manitoba, product started down the ice to open the 10th round and absolutely snipped one past Sogaard to take the lead once again. Henrik Rybinski was up next for the Medicine Hat Tigers. Rybinski made a nice attempt but it wasn't good enough to make it passed Blades goaltender Nolan Maier.

Josh Paterson had 2 assists in his season debut; Chase Wouters scored his first goal of the season, and Kristian Roykas-Marthinsen enjoyed his first Western Hockey League goal. Nolan Maier earned his third straight win making 32 saves on the night an going 8/10 in the shootout. Mads Soogard was just as impressive at the other end in his WHL debut making 39 saves and stopping 7/10 in the tiebreaker.

Saskatoon's man advantage went 1/4 on the evening while the penalty killers were 2/3.

The Blades will now prepare for Sunday's visit to Prince Albert where the two undefeated rivals will meet for the first of eight meetings on the season. Saskatoon brings a 3-0 record into Sunday's match while the Raiders enter at 4-0 on the season after an overtime win tonight in Moose Jaw.

Check out the Saskatoon Blades Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from September 30, 2018


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central