Gardner’s Goaltending Helps Blades Douse Blazers

The early-season winning streak is now up to five games and the Saskatoon Blades are in first place in, both, the East Division and Eastern Conference after blanking the visiting Kamloops Blazers 3-0 Saturday night.

Evan Gardner (pictured) stopped all 32 shots he faced for his eighth career shutout in front of 3,452 fans. That moved the 19-year-old Columbus Blue Jackets’ draft pick into third place on the all-time Blades’ list for career shutouts, past Braden Holtby. Nolan Maier tops the list with 12 clean sheets with Andrey Makarov in second spot with nine shutouts. Gardner got all the goal support he needed in the first period as Jordan Martin, Zach Olsen and David Lewandowski tallied. Martin added an assist while his defence partner Brayden Klimpke chipped in a pair of helpers. Between Gardner and a stout Bridge City Bunch defensive effort, rookie Kamloops star J.P. Hurlbert was held off the score sheet for the first time this season. Other than the three goals on six shots in the first period, Saskatoon product Logan Edmonstone kept the Blazers in range by stopping 21 shots over the final 40 minutes of play. The Blue and Gold, now 7-2-0 for the season and a perfect 4-0-0 at SaskTel Centre, are off until Friday when they host Moose Jaw. Kamloops, now 3-4-0 for the season, take a four-game losing streak into the third game of their East Division road trip on Thanksgiving Monday in Regina. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Dan Da Silva, Gardner and Martin plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L;s website…..

KAMLOOPS Goals KAMLOOPS PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) KAMLOOPS PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 4:30  3-4 3 4 9 16 26 3 9 14 16 22 1st 14:18  9-26-4 3 4 9 16 26 2 9 12 23 29 1st 19:29  11-3-37 3 11 17 37 82 5 14 16 22 33