Blades Battle Past Broncos

The Saskatoon Blades won a tight-checking affair on Tuesday night, knocking off the Swift Current Broncos by a score of 3-1.

There was no scoring in the opening frame as both teams had their chances, the best being a breakaway by Ryon Moser that was stopped by Andrey Makarov.  The shots were 10-8 for Saskatoon after 20 minutes as the scoring picked up in the second frame.

In that second period the Blades got back to back goals from leading scorer Matej Stransky, five minutes apart.  The goals included a nice move by Stransky on the second goal where he walked to the slot, deked around a defender and fired a puck past Broncos goalie Jon Groenheyde.

That 2-0 lead would be taken into the third period by Saskatoon as the shots were 21-19 for the Blades after 40 minutes.

A bit of a sluggish start to the period for Saskatoon allowed the Broncos back into the game as they got their first and only goal of the game at 5:03 as Ryon Moser took a pass from Graham Black and fired it by Makarov to make it 2-1.

The Broncos continued to push, eventually outshooting Saskatoon 13-9 in the period.  But, the chances wouldn’t go in for the hard working group from Swift Current.  Eventually the Broncos pulled their goalie and the Blades iced it when Josh Nicholls tucked in a wraparound chance.  The play came after Stransky missed the open cage for a hat-trick and Nicholls hit the post seconds later.

Makarov stopped 31 pucks in the Blades goal, while Groenheyde stopped 27 pucks for Swift Current. 

Special teams was a quiet area of the game as the teams combined to go 0 for 3.

The Blades now have a couple of days off before playing host to Moose Jaw on Friday and Medicine Hat on Saturday.

Saskatoon Blades Hockey, It Starts Here!