Oil Kings’ Imports Call Czech-Mate on Visiting Blades

Dan Da Silva’s 100th game as head coach of the Saskatoon Blades may not have been victorious, but it was much better than his 99th game as Bridge City Bunch bench boss.

After being bounced 9-3 Friday at home by Medicine Hat, the Blue and Gold started and ended well, but couldn’t solve the Edmonton Oil Kings’ trio of forwards from Czechia in a 6-5 setback. Miroslav Holinka, Max Curren and Adam Jecho combined for 10 points – each scoring a goal with Holinka and Curren adding three assists and Jecho chipping in one helper. It was the Blades’ third straight loss, leaving them with a record of 14-11-2. Rowan Calvert scored twice with Hayden Harsanyi, David Lewandowski and Tyler Parr adding single tallies. Parr’s goal came with Saskatoon playing short-handed. Calvert and Harsanyi opened the scoring with back-to-back power play goals 30 seconds apart, but Edmonton rallied to tie before Lewandowski gave the Bridge City Bunch a 3-2 lead after the first period. However, the Oil Kings scored a couple of man advantage goals in the second period, prompting Blue and Gold head coach Dan Da Silva to lift starting goaltender Evan Gardner in favour of Ethan McCallum for a second straight game. Edmonton didn’t trail after that as they won in their first home game in 25 days, improving their record to 20-6-2. It’s the fastest the Oil Kings have reached the 20-win mark in a season in franchise history. It was also Edmonton’s fourth straight home victory and snapped the Blades’ road winning streak at three games, despite holding a 34-25 edge in shots on goal. Saskatoon goes back on the road for their next game Wednesday in Brandon. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Les Lazaruk’s Post-Game Show interview with head coach Dan Da Silva plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L website…..

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) EDMONTON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 3:17 PP  23-27-11 1st 3:47 PP  26-20-4 1st 17:48  11-27-16 11 16 27 47 56 3 4 8 21 95 3rd 16:21 SH  20-82-37 20 37 82 3rd 19:31  23-4-82 4 11 16 23 27 82 4 23 27 92 95

EDMONTON Goals EDMONTON PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 6:23 PP  8-92-47 1st 8:34  43-8-7 6 8 43 47 95 3 4 20 23 82 2nd 3:35 PP  77-95-92 2nd 5:10 PP  47-92-8 3rd 11:37  7-43-8 4 6 7 8 43 11 16 27 37 82 3rd 18:45 EN  92-95-23 6 23 47 92 95 4 11 16 23 27 82