Blades dominate Warriors
The Saskatoon Blades came ready to play Wednesday.
The same could not be said of the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors.
The hometown Blades squad got an early jump on the Warriors, peppering 21 shots on them through the first 20 minutes and building up a 2-0 lead on their way to a 6-1 Western Hockey League victory at Sasktel Centre.
With the win, Saskatoon improves to 32-13-8-0 on the season and moves eight points up on Moose Jaw in the WHL’S East Division standings and the race for second place. However, the Warriors — at 28-13-6-2 — still have four games in hand on the Blades.
Kyle Crnkovic put the Blades on the scoreboard at 9:46 of the first period, finishing off a nifty backdoor pass from the WHL’S top scoring D -man Dawson Davidson.
Blades captain Chase Wouters made it 2-0 with 11.1 seconds remaining in the opening frame, pouncing on a loose rebound and depositing it past Warriors goalie Adam Evanoff.
Then, early in the second frame, Saskatoon increased its lead to 3-0 on a goal by Ryan Hughes just 54 seconds in.
Moose Jaw’s Justin Almeida cut that lead to 3-1, with a power-play marker at 12:53 of the second, but Davidson answered back later in the period, at 18:11, after connecting on a drop pass from Riley Mckay.
In the third period, Max Gerlach added an insurance marker, on the power play, at 10:50. It was his team-leading 32nd goal of the season. Another power-play goal, this one by D -man Brandon Schuldhaus with 59 seconds remaining, was the icing on the cake.
Saskatoon out-shot Moose Jaw 48-20, including a 21-5 advantage in the first period.
Nolan Maier made 19 saves for the Blades.
Saskatoon went 4-for-6 on the power play. Moose Jaw was 1-for-5.
The Warriors were playing without leading scorer Tristin Langan in the lineup. Langan leads Moose Jaw with 38 goals and 44 assists for 82 points in 48 games. That’s 27 more than Blades leading scorer Kirby Dach had entering Wednesday’s game. Langan was serving a onegame suspension assessed for an incident Saturday in Prince Albert, where the Warriors lost 4-3 to the Raiders.
In Langan’s absence, the Warriors used defenceman Josh Brook, a member of Canada’s world junior team, up front as a forward.
The Blades return to action Saturday in Swift Current against the Broncos before returning home Sunday for an afternoon tilt against the Brandon Wheat Kings. Game time is 4 p.m. at Sasktel Centre.
BLADES 7, WHEATIES 3
On Tuesday night, the Blades downed the Brandon Wheat Kings 7-3 before 3,090 fans in Brandon.
Dach notched a hat-trick for the Blades, who led 1-0 and 4-3 by periods.
Gerlach and Eric Florchuk each tallied twice for Saskatoon, which outshot Brandon 37-28.
Gary Haden had a game-high four points for the Blades, who were good on two of three power-play chances.
Blades netminder Dorrin Luding made 25 saves for the win.