Down 3-1 midway through the third period, the Saskatoon Blades rallied to, likely, save their season – winning 4-3 in overtime Tuesday night in Regina.
Egor Sidorov (pictured) scored at 5:19 of the overtime period as the Bridge City Bunch cut the Pats’ lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final to 2-1. The road team has won all three games thus far in the series. Connor Bedard’s sixth goal of the set at 9:39 of the third period appeared to put Regina firmly in command and on their way to pushing the Blue and Gold to the brink of elimination. But, Sidorov started the comeback with a power play goal 53 seconds after Bedard’s tally. Then, Brandon Lisowsky forced overtime, shovelling Jake Chiasson’s short pass through the legs of Pats’ goaltender Drew Sim with 27.2 seconds left in regulation time. The tying goal was the third power play goal of the contest for the Blades, who hadn’t scored on the man advantage in the first two games of the series, and came with goaltender Ethan Chadwick on the bench for an extra attacker. Jayden Wiens also scored for Saskatoon who received a big break in the first period when Bedard appeared to give Regina a 3-1 lead, only to have the goal disallowed by a video review because the left post of the Bridge City Bunch had been dislodged a few seconds before. The Blue and Gold out-shot the Pats 37-24 for the game…28-10 after the first period. Game 4 of the series goes Wednesday night in Regina with CJWW’s broadcast beginning at 6:45 p.m. and the play-by-play at 7 o’clock. Following is the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L, along with the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast and my Post-Game Show interview with Blades’ head coach Brennan Sonne…..
Saskatoon Blades 4 (OT) at Regina Pats 3 – Status: Final OT
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 – Brandt Centre – Regina, SK
Saskatoon 1 0 2 1 – 4
Regina 2 0 1 0 – 3
1st Period-1, Regina, Svozil 3 (Bedard, Ginnell), 2:32. 2, Saskatoon, Wiens 2 (De La Gorgendiere, Wong), 12:21 (PP). 3, Regina, Suzdalev 1 (Bedard, Svozil), 13:25. Penalties-Watterodt Sas (interference), 5:36; Vaughan Reg (boarding), 12:13.
2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-served by Chiasson Sas (too many men), 17:39.
3rd Period-4, Regina, Bedard 6 (Suzdalev, Ginnell), 9:39. 5, Saskatoon, Sidorov 1 (De La Gorgendiere, Wong), 10:32 (PP). 6, Saskatoon, Lisowsky 1 (Chiasson, Wong), 19:33 (PP). Penalties-Oremba Reg (holding), 4:22; Lisowsky Sas (slashing), 5:27; Feist Reg (cross checking), 10:15; Shugrue Sas (roughing), 11:24; Barnett Reg (roughing), 11:24; Berge Reg (tripping), 18:01.
OT Period-7, Saskatoon, Sidorov 2 (Saunderson), 5:19. Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Saskatoon 9-9-13-6-37. Regina 14-7-2-1-24.
Power Play Opportunities-Saskatoon 3 / 4; Regina 0 / 3.
Goalies-Saskatoon, Chadwick (24 shots-21 saves). Regina, Sim (37 shots-33 saves).
A-6,499
Referees-Adam Forbes (62), Brett Iverson (24).
Linesmen-Tanner McGregor (55), Tarrington Wyonzek (137).