Blades’ spirited comeback falls short in overtime loss to WHL’s top team

For their second consecutive game — and the third time in their last four games — the Saskatoon Blades took on the Moose Jaw Warriors, the WHL’s No. 1 team.

Saskatoon (8-12-2-0) won on Nov. 15 by a 5-4 count but Moose Jaw (19-5-0-0) rebounded for a 6-3 win on Saturday.

In Tuesday’s tilt, Moose Jaw’s Brayden Burke scored the gamewinning goal three minutes and 57 seconds into the overtime period to give the Warriors a 7-6 victory.

Moose Jaw’s Jaxan Kaluski scored his first goal of the season and the first of the game 4:26 into the opening period. That was followed by back-to-back goals from Jayden Halbgewachs to put the Warriors ahead 3-0 at the break.

Tanner Jeannot added a fourth goal to Moose Jaw’s total early in the second frame before Saskatoon’s Cameron Hebig scored twice in a row to cut the lead to 4-2.

The Warriors extended their lead to four goals once again after Justin Almeida scored late in the period and Tate Popple scored just under three minutes into the third period.

After that, the scoreboard belonged to the Blades for the rest of regulation time, beginning with Bradly Goethals’ goal at 3:11 and finishing with Caleb Fantillo tying the game at 13:39.

Saskatoon’s two additional goals in the third were scored by Josh Paterson and Hebig. That goal gave Hebig his second hat trick of the season and brought him to a team-leading total of 18 goals in 20 games. He’s seventh overall in the WHL scoring race.

Saskatoon was in Swift Current on Wednesday for a meeting with the Broncos.

The Blades return home on Friday for a showdown with the Brandon Wheat Kings.

HUSKIES ON THE RISE IN U SPORTS RANKINGS

The undefeated University of Saskatchewan women’s basketball team (6-0) moved from eighth to sixth in the U Sports Top 10 Rankings this week.

The only Canada West team ahead of the Huskies is the University of Regina Cougars (5-1) who fell from first to third this week.

The other three Huskies teams in the rankings all maintained the status quo from the week before.

The men’s hockey Huskies (9-21) are ranked third in the nation. The men’s wrestling team sits in fourth spot and the women’s wrestling team is ranked sixth.

RACQUETBALL PLAYERS HEAD TO CAMP

Seven Saskatchewan racquetball players are among 26 athletes from across Canada attending the National Team selection event this weekend.

Saskatoon’s Danielle Drury (ranked fourth in the country) and Macrorie’s Cassie Prentice (15th) will compete in the women’s open event.

Lee Connell (sixth), Joshua Keil (18th) and James Landeryou (fourth) of Saskatoon, as well as Martensville’s Ian Frattinger (65th) and Macrorie’s Tanner Prentice (11th), will compete in the men’s open event.

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