Blades Run Over in Prince Albert
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The Saskatoon Blades dropped a 7-3 decision to the Prince Albert Raiders on Wednesday night on the road.
Derek Hulak (Saskatoon, SK), Stefan Elliott (North Vancouver, BC), and Jyri Niemi (Saskatoon, SK) scored for the Blades, who had a three-game streak without a loss in regulation snapped with the defeat.
Prince Albert – 1st – Dustin Cameron (Igor Revenko, Jordan Hickmott) 4:16 pp
The Raiders opened the scoring on the 26th goal of the season by Cameron, a former Blade. The overage forward took a feed in the slot just above the hash marks and fired a wrist shot high glove side.
Prince Albert – 1st – Justin Maylan (Colin Reddin, Nathan Deck) 10:35
Maylan made it 2-0 after fighting for position on a rebound in front of the net and beating a sprawled out Steven Stanford (Calgary, AB) for his 12th of the year.
Saskatoon – 1st – Hulak (Josh Nicholls, Marek Viedensky) 12:39
Hulak cut into the Raiders’ lead with his 23rd of the season just over two minutes later. Nicholls (Tsawwassen, BC) brought the Blades into the offensive zone 3-on-2 and took a shot that was blocked by a defenseman. The puck bounced over to the Blades’ captain Hulak, who slid one past goaltender Garrett Zemlak.
Saskatoon – 1st – Elliott (Nicholls, Viedensky) 17:19 pp
The Blades tied things up before the opening frame was out on Elliott’s 19th on the campaign. The 18-year-old took a saucer pass from Nicholls at the point and put a wrist through a crowd in front to make it 2-2.
Prince Albert – 2nd – Andrew Herle (Jordan Kochan) 11:03
Herle made it 3-2 on his 4th of the year midway through the middle period. After Kochan’s shot on the rush was blocked, Herle battled for the rebound and jammed it past Stanford.
Saskatoon – 2nd – Niemi (Viedensky, Nicholls) 18:43
With the teams playing 4-on-4 late in the second period, Niemi evened the score again. Viedensky (Handlova, Slovakia) cycled the puck to a pinching Niemi along the left half boards with open ice available towards the net. The 19-year-old Niemi took the puck to the mouth of the crease, moved to the backhand, and lifted it over the stick of Zemlak for his 7th goal of the season.
Prince Albert – 3rd – Maylan (Mark McNeill, Emerson Hrynyk) 1:54
The Raiders regained the lead for the third and final time in the hockey game early in the third period. Catching the Blades’ defensemen on a line change, Maylan streaked down the right side and barely got off a wrist shot that was tipped over the shoulder of Stanford for his 13th.
Prince Albert – 3rd – Craig McCallum (Brandon Herrod, Jordan Rowley) 5:02 pp
McCallum made it 5-3 on the second power play goal of the game for the Raiders. Herrod held the puck in the corner and fed it in front to the 20-year-old, who redirected it to the back of the net.
Prince Albert – 3rd – Herrod (Hickmott, Craig McCallum) 5:58
Herrod picked up his 33rd of the season less than a minute later with a hard snap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle.
Prince Albert – 3rd – Brendon Wall (Ryan Harrison) 18:40
Wall, a former Blade, closed out the scoring in the game with a little more than a minute remaining in the third period. The 19-year-old took a wrist off of a faceoff win from the point that found the top corner.
Stanford made 35 saves in a losing cause for the Blades. Zemlak stopped 32 of 35 shots sent his way to earn the victory for the Raiders.
Final score Prince Albert Raiders 7, Saskatoon Blades 3.
The Blades see their season mark go to 34-12-3-3 for 74 points and, coupled with a Brandon Wheat Kings win, drops them to 2nd in the East Division and 3rd in the Eastern Conference standings. The Raiders improve to 28-23-2-2 for 60 points on the season and leap frog to 7th in the Eastern Conference.
The Blades are next in action this coming Friday with a visit to the Regina Pats. Game time is 7:00 pm. Listen to the game live on 92.9 The Bull.
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