Blades Ascend to Top of WHL East Division by Doubling Pats

For the first time since January 7th, the Saskatoon Blades are in sole possession of first place in the W-H-L’s East Division following Tuesday night’s 6-3 triumph over the Pats in Regina.

Six different members of the Bridge City Bunch scored as the Blue and Gold won their third straight game, improving their record to 34-21-7 for 75 points, one more than Prince Albert, two ahead of Brandon and six clear of Swift Current, with all teams having played 62 of 68 regular-season games. Tyler Parr (pictured) added two assists to his 20th goal of the season, giving him a team-leading 60 points for the campaign. Grayden Siepman, Rowan Calvert and Cooper Williams each chipped in a helper to go along with scoring a goal while Brayden Klimpke and David Lewandowski also tallied for the Blades. Hunter Laing added two assists while Evan Gardner stopped 25 of 28 shots for his 20th win of the season. Saskatoon jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the third period and would hold a four-goal lead on three different occasions only to have the 15-40-8 Pats respond to keep the score from getting out of hand. Now comes the sprint to the finish for the East Division banner with all four of the contenders in action on Wednesday – the Blue and Gold in Brandon, the Raiders at Lethbridge and the Broncos at home to Red Deer. CJWW’s broadcast of the Bridge City Bunch and Wheat Kings starts at 4:45 p.m. and play-by-play at 5 o’clock. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s Tuesday broadcast, Les Lazaruk’s Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Dan Da Silva and Parr plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) REGINA PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 14:45  25-21-27 21 25 27 52 86 6 27 34 52 55 1st 16:11  4-37-11 4 11 26 29 37 5 18 20 36 46 1st 19:14  23-20 20 21 23 32 52 6 18 27 34 36 2nd 11:06  20-13-23 4 13 20 23 32 6 21 47 55 57 2nd 17:23  86-25-27 2 3 25 27 86 6 34 52 55 57 3rd 6:18 PP  21-20-29

REGINA Goals REGINA PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 2nd 12:42 PP  72 2nd 18:23  27-44-21 5 21 27 44 47 11 21 26 29 52 3rd 13:41  57-6-72 6 18 55 57 72 3 4 11 14 32