SASKATOON — Egor Sidorov was the overtime hero last Friday night as the Saskatoon Blades won their lone game of the week.
After a scoreless first period in Saskatoon, Andrew Basha got the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers on the board. Forty-one seconds later, with 6:52 gone in the period, Vaughn Watterodt tied things up for Saskatoon. Misha Volotovskii’s first of the season about three minutes later put the Blades up, 2-1. Before the end of the period, Medicine Hat’s Brayden Boehm knotted the game at 2-2.
Less than a minute and half into the third period, Brandon Lisowsky scored with the man advantage. His power play marker gave Saskatoon a 3-2 lead. The Tigers scored on the power play of their own. Brenden Lee found the back of the net with 3:56 played in the period. That set the stage for Sidorov’s game winner, assisted by Jayden Wiens and Lisowsky pleasing the crowd of 3,106.
As of Sunday, the Blades were 15-4-0-0 on the season. They sat third in the Western Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.
The team’s success has come this season with many players contributing. The Blades’ top scorer – Trevor Wong – is 29th in the league with 23 points. Including Wong, the Saskatoon squad has three players in the top 45. Lisowsky’s 22 points puts him 33rd, while captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere, a defenceman, was 43rd with 21 points. Lisowsky and Sidorov are tied for the team lead with nine each. Wong was one behind with eight goals. Seventeen Blades have scored at least once this season.
The Blades’ depth is also shown in the crease. Hometown product Ethan Chadwick has played 10 games, while Austin Elliott has seen action in nine. Elliott leads the WHL with a 1.55 goals against average. Chadwick is right behind him – second at 2.01. Elliot also tops the league in save percentage at .941, while Chadwick is ninth at .920. The latter has a 7-3-0-0 record. Elliott is 8-1-0-0 this season.
The Blades wrap up their five-game homestand by hosting the Winnipeg Ice on Friday and Saturday.
