Blades end regular season with 3-1 loss to Raiders

The Saskatoon Blades were riding an eight-game winning streak entering Saturday’s game against the host Prince Albert Raiders — which included a 3-2 victory over the Raiders on Friday — but couldn’t get it to nine as they lost 3-1.

On Saturday, Sean Montgomery scored first for the Raiders (54-10-2-2) in the opening period and was followed by back-to-back goals from teammate Noah Gregor — one in the first period and one in the second period — before Max Gerlach added Saskatoon’s lone goal with just under four minutes left to play in the game.

Next up for the Blades (45-15-80) is a meeting with the Moose Jaw Warriors (40-20-6-2) in Round 1 of the Western Hockey League playoffs. The first game of that best-ofseven series is slated for Friday at 7 p.m. at Sasktel Centre.

SYROTA DEFENDS TITLE

Wadena’s Delores Syrota will once again represent Saskatchewan at the Canadian Masters curling championships — beginning April 1 in Saskatoon — after successfully defending her provincial title on the weekend in Watrous.

Competing against Moose Jaw’s Lorraine Arguin in the final on Sunday, Syrota scored three points in the third end before stealing another four points in the fourth end to take a commanding 7-1 lead. Arguin added singles in the fifth and seventh ends, but it wasn’t enough to catch Syrota who added a single of her own in the sixth to win the game 8-3. Syrota and Arguin both finished the round robin with perfect 5-0 records, which placed them both in the 1 vs. 1 playoff on Saturday. Arguin won that game 6-4, propelling her to the final, while Syrota dropped to Sunday morning ’s semifinal, where she defeated Saskatoon’s Merle Kopach 8-6 to set up the rematch against Arguin Sunday afternoon.

Watrous is also hosting the men’s masters championship. Round robin games that decided who would move on to the playoffs were still underway at press time.

The 1 vs. 1 and 2 vs. 2 playoff draws were scheduled for late Sunday evening, with the semifinal draw slated for Monday morning and the final set for later that afternoon.