The Saskatoon Blades continue to be the hottest team in the W-H-L, winning their eighth straight game Friday, out-scoring the Spokane Chiefs 8-5 in front of 4,357 fans at SaskTel Centre.
Brandon Lisowsky (pictured) recorded his second five-point game, comprised of three goals and two assists, in three outings while linemates Egor Sidorov and Trevor Wong added a goal and two helpers and a goal and an assist, respectively, for a combined 10 points and +16 rating. The Bridge City Bunch needed all of their contributions to improve to 23-5-0 for the season and chalk up their longest winning streak since the franchise-record 18-game run in January, February and March of 2013. Despite falling to 6-21-2 for the season, Spokane didn’t quit, twice reducing three-goal Blue and Gold leads to one in a wild third period in which each team scored five times. But, the Blades were able to prevail in the first meeting between the two teams in 1,122 days. Defencemen Blake Gustafson and Aidan De La Gorgendiere plus left winger Justin Lies added the other goals for Saskatoon while Austin Elliott made 22 saves for his fourth straight victory. In their last three games, the Bridge City Bunch have scored at least eight goals and have out-scored the opposition 25-8. The Blue and Gold play their final pre-Christmas break game Saturday when they visit the Regina Pats. Game time is 7 o’clock with CJWW’s broadcast starting at 6:45 p.m. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L plus Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Brennan Sonne, Lisowsky and Gustafson…..
Spokane Chiefs 5 at Saskatoon Blades 8 – Status: Final
Friday, December 16, 2022 – SaskTel Centre – Saskatoon, SK
Spokane 0 0 5 – 5
Saskatoon 2 1 5 – 8
1st Period-1, Saskatoon, Wong 10 (De La Gorgendiere, Lisowsky), 2:31. 2, Saskatoon, Lisowsky 16 14:17. Penalties-McIsaac Spo (cross checking), 4:06.
2nd Period-3, Saskatoon, Lisowsky 17 (Sidorov), 5:39. Penalties-Hayes Spo (major-fighting), 7:37; Lies Sas (major-fighting), 7:37; Weinstein Spo (slew-footing), 11:41; Keller Sas (hooking), 14:09.
3rd Period-4, Spokane, Bertholet 12 (Catton, Cheveldayoff), 3:27 (PP). 5, Spokane, De Luca 9 (Hayes, Streek), 5:34. 6, Saskatoon, Gustafson 1 6:15. 7, Saskatoon, De La Gorgendiere 7 (Lisowsky), 7:00. 8, Spokane, Crampton 1 (Bertholet, Catton), 9:03. 9, Spokane, Catton 6 (De Luca, Cheveldayoff), 11:35 (PP). 10, Saskatoon, Lies 7 (Roulette, De La Gorgendiere), 15:10. 11, Saskatoon, Lisowsky 18 (Sidorov, Wong), 15:24. 12, Spokane, Bertholet 13 16:39. 13, Saskatoon, Sidorov 16 (Roulette), 18:16 (EN). Penalties-Gustafson Sas (tripping), 2:18; Volotovskii Sas (tripping), 10:22.
Shots on Goal-Spokane 5-10-12-27. Saskatoon 9-5-10-24.
Power Play Opportunities-Spokane 2 / 3; Saskatoon 0 / 3.
Goalies-Spokane, Cowan 5-6-0-0 (23 shots-16 saves). Saskatoon, Elliott 12-2-0-0 (27 shots-22 saves).
A-4,357
Referees-Karlin Krieger (27), Wyatt Rapsky (119).
Linesmen-Brayden Glynn (96), Levi Schutz (110).