Feistiness Overcomes Fatigue; Raiders Prevail Over Blades

You’d never have guessed the Saskatoon Blades and Prince Albert Raiders were playing their third game-in-as-man days Sunday! In fact, based on the game’s intensity, you might be surprised the Bridge City Bunch and P-A hadn’t faced each other in two-and-a-half months!

In the end, it was the Raiders who extended their winning streak to five games, snipping the Blue and Gold’s run at three victories-in-a-row, with a 5-4 triumph. Evan Smith potted the winning goal at 5:58 of the third period off a goal-mouth scramble as Prince Albert improved their season record to 22-4-4. The game started with a bang as the team captains – Tyler Parr of the Blades and Justice Christensen of the Raiders engaged in fisticuffs just 37 seconds into the contest. Saskatoon held the lead after the first period on goals 20 seconds apart from Hayden Harsanyi and Kazden Mathies while defencemen Daxon Rudolph of P-A and Tristen Doyle of the Bridge City exchanged tallies before the first period ended, giving the Blue and Gold a 3-1 lead. The Raiders scored three unanswered goals in the middle frame – by Brayden Dube, Brock Cripps and Christensen – to take a 4-3 advantage. Former Prince Albert blueliner Tyrone Sobry tied the score early in the third period for the Blades, setting the stage for Smith’s winner. Rudolph and Smith each added an assist to their goals while Riley Boychuk chipped in two helpers for the visitors. Doyle added an assist for a multi-point game for Saskatoon with Rowan Calvert and Gavin Clark chipping in two helpers each for the 17-14-2 Bridge City Bunch. The Raiders out-shot the Blue and Gold 35-26 in the chippy contest in which there were four sets of co-incidental minors to go along with the early game fighting majors. The Blades will reach the mid-point of their 68-game season when they play their final game before the Christmas break on Wednesday when they host the Memorial Cup-host Kelowna Rockets. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Post-Game Show convos with head coach Dan Da Silva and Parr plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L website…..

PRINCE ALBERT Goals PRINCE ALBERT PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 14:32  10-21-25 7 10 21 23 25 9 16 37 45 71 2nd 1:09 PP  15-10-23 2nd 9:25  12-22-27 8 12 22 27 34 4 19 26 27 56 2nd 13:45  7 7 10 17 28 32 4 9 16 37 71 3rd 5:58  21-23-11 6 11 21 23 25 3 9 16 45 71

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) PRINCE ALBERT PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 13:37  26-19-27 4 19 26 27 37 8 11 17 28 32 1st 13:57  77-23-4 3 4 20 23 77 7 10 14 15 19 1st 17:29 PP  47-23 3rd 2:20  56-47-19 9 19 45 47 56 7 10 17 28 32