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Blades Overtaken by Wheat Kings

The Saskatoon Blades traveled into enemy territory on Wednesday night and came out on the losing end of a 5-3 decision to the host Brandon Wheat Kings.

Gaelan Patterson (Saskatoon, SK), Josh Nicholls (Tsawwassen, BC), and Derek Hulak (Saskatoon, SK) scored for the Blades, who have now lost two consecutive games.

Saskatoon – 1^st – Patterson (Walker Wintoneak) 4:53 sh
The Blades opened the scoring while a man down a little under five minutes into the hockey game on the 24^th of the season from Patterson. The 19-year-old fired a shot down the wing that was blocked by a defenseman. The four-year veteran caught goaltender Jacob De Serres off guard on a second shot that snuck through for his 6^th shorthanded marker of the year.

Brandon – 1^st – Aaron Lewadniuk (Jay Fehr, Travis Hamonic) 5:41 pp
The 20-year-old Lewadniuk tied things up 48 seconds later on his 32^nd of the campaign. A tic-tac-toe passing play ended with Fehr teeing up Lewadniuk for a one-timer in front that found its way past Blades goaltender Steven Stanford (Calgary, AB).

Brandon – 1^st – Shayne Wiebe 19:31 sh
The Wheat Kings grabbed their first lead of the game before the opening frame was out. The now-20-year-old Wiebe worked his way onto a breakaway from the Blades blue line and beat Stanford five hole with a backhand for his 22^nd of the year.

Brandon – 2^nd – Matt Calvert (Brayden Schenn, Scott Glennie) 4:03
Calvert gave the home side a 3-1 lead with his 41^st of the campaign. Schenn pulled the puck out of the right wing corner and fed the 20-year-old in front for a one-timer past Stanford.

Saskatoon – 2^nd – Nicholls (Marek Viedensky) 6:51
Nicholls cut into the Wheaties lead with his 17^th of the season. Viedensky (Handlova, Slovakia) snagged an errant clearing attempt inside the offensive zone and had his centering pass redirected by Nicholls past De Serres to the back of the net.

Saskatoon – 2^nd – Hulak (Duncan Siemens, Nicholls) 15:47
Hulak made it 3-3 heading into the second intermission with his 30^th of the year. Siemens (Sherwood Park, AB) rushed the puck into the Wheat Kings zone and fired a shot on goal. Hulak, the Blades captain, jumped on the rebound and made no mistake.

Brandon – 3^rd – Brenden Walker (Brent Raedeke, Wiebe) 8:00
The Wheaties regained the lead for the final time in the game on the 7^th of the season from Walker. The 17-year-old fought the puck out of the corner, moved to the front of the net, deked out Stanford, and beat him glove side.

Brandon – 3^rd – Schenn (Wiebe, Alexander Urbom) 19:34 en
Schenn sealed the win for the Wheat Kings with his 29^th on the campaign. The home squad cleared the zone and sent the puck into the Blades end. The 18-year-old beat a Blades defenseman to the loose puck and found an empty net.

Stanford stopped 19 of 23 shots in goal in a losing cause for the Blades. De Serres turned aside 22 of 25 shots in the Brandon goal to claim the victory.

Final score Brandon Wheat Kings 5, Saskatoon Blades 3.

The Blades see their season record drop to 43-16-3-4 for 93 points and now sit one point back of the Wheat Kings for first in the East Division and two points back of the Calgary Hitmen for tops in the Conference. The Wheaties, meanwhile, improve their season mark to 45-18-1-3 for 94 points.

The Blades now travel to Alberta for a pair of back-to-back games this weekend. First off, the Blades are in Edmonton to take on the Oil Kings at Rexall Place on Saturday night. The Bridge City Bunch then travel down Highway 2 for a Sunday afternoon matinee against the Calgary Hitmen. Both games will be broadcasted on 92.9 The Bull and for online video streaming on WHL WebTV.

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