Blades Bounce Back to Cap Oil Kings

Like the proverbial rubber ball that hits a wall, the Saskatoon Blades bounced back – in impressive fashion – with a 5-3 victory Sunday over the Edmonton Oil Kings at SaskTel Centre.

The Bridge City Bunch were challenged to be better after Saturday’s 6-2 loss to last place Moose Jaw. The Blue and Gold got two goals from 16-year-old rookie forward Zach Olsen (pictured). It was his first multi-goal game in the W-H-L, with the second marker counting as the game winner – a first for him in the W-H-L as well. Tanner Scott opened the scoring 47 seconds into the game as the Blades showed they were ready to make up for the Saturday setback in Moose Jaw. Saskatoon responded again when Edmonton took a 2-1 lead early in the second period on goals from Marshall Finnie and Josh Mori. Hayden Harsanyi tied the score, setting the stage for Olsen’s heroics as he snapped a 10-game goal-less drought.  The Oil Kings made it 4-3 late when Lukas Sawchyn tallied, but Kazden Mathies found an empty net from between the hash marks in front of the Bridge City Bunch net to clinch their 31st win of the season. The victory also reduced the Blue and Gold’s Magic Number to five points to clinch a W-H-L Eastern Conference playoff spot. The 31-20-7 Blades out-shot 33-23-4 Edmonton 31-23. Tyler Parr and Cooper Williams each chipped in a pair of assists for Saskatoon, who start a run of 10 games to finish up the regular-season – all against East Division rivals – by hosting Swift Current on Wednesday. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Post-Game Show comments from head coach Dan Da Silva, Olsen and Harsanyi plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..

EDMONTON Goals EDMONTON PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 3:59  14-23-2 6 14 23 37 43 2 3 9 25 26 2nd 2:22  2-9-59 2 3 9 59 95 2 3 9 21 86 3rd 16:07  95-59 3 9 37 59 95 4 13 20 26 29

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) EDMONTON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st :47  29-20 2 3 20 26 29 6 10 23 37 43 2nd 8:18  26-20-13 2 13 20 26 29 3 10 21 28 34 2nd 10:24 PP  9-86-25 3rd 9:59  9-4-25 4 9 13 25 86 2 21 23 27 59 3rd 19:07 EN  77 2 20 21 23 77 3 9 14 43 59 92