Zipp scores twice to lift Hitmen over Blades

Jason Pirie/hitmenhockey.com

Photo: Steve Hiscock/Saskatoon Blades

The secondary scoring that had been astray for most of this season showed up in a big way tonight for the Calgary Hitmen in Saskatoon.

Defenceman Micheal Zipp scored twice – with his first coming only 21 seconds into the game –  and added an assist to lead the Hitmen to a 6-3 road win over the Saskatoon Blades at SaskTel Centre.

Radel Fazleev also scored once and added a pair of assists while newcomer Jakob Stukel chipped in with a goal and a helper.

Mark Kastelic and Jackson Houck, with his third goal in as many games since arriving in Calgary via trade from Vancouver along with Stukel, also lit the lamp for the Hitmen, who improved to 9-7-0-1 on the season.

“We wanted to carry over our momentum from our big win at home over Seattle and we were able to do that,” Zipp said. “We had a lot of different guys stepping up for us tonight and our power play was clicking again which was really nice to see.”

The Hitmen, who have now won back-to-back games for the first time since early October, went 3 for 4 with the man advantage while the Blades finished 1 for 3.

Earning his third straight start for the Hitmen, goaltender Cody Porter turned aside 21 of 24 shots for the win and Brock Hamm made 22 saves in a losing cause for the Blades, who fell to 2-5-2 on home ice this season.

Zipp, with his first goal of the campaign, wasted no time getting the visitors on the scoreboard when, on the first shift of the game, the big defenceman jumped up into the play and roofed a blast over top of Blades goaltender Hamm. Dawson Martin and Stukel, with his first point as a Hitmen, contributed the assists.

The defender Zipp would provide the Hitmen with a 2-0 lead at 17:56 of the second frame after he accepted a cross-ice pass from Travis Sanheim and, with Carsen Twarynski in front of the Blades net acting as a screen, fired a shot from the point for his second marker of the contest.

“A little bit of puck luck, but I’m not complaining,” said Zipp, downplaying his big offensive night. “As long as the team comes away with two points I don’t think there’s a guy on this team that cares who contributes to make that happen.”

The Blades, though, would cut Calgary’s lead to 2-1 only 38 seconds later when Mason McCarty wisely opted to shoot instead of pass while on a two-on-one break.

Calgary would regain its two-goal advantage while on the power play early in the third period, however.

With former Hitmen Terrell Draude in the box after being called for charging late in the second frame, Stukel tapped in a nifty goal mouth feed from Jordy Stallard at 1:33 to extend Calgary’s lead to 3-1.

“It was a great pass by Stally that anyone could have put in, but it was definitely nice to score that one,” Stukel said. “We had a good start tonight, which was our main focus going into the game. Overall, it was just a great team win.”

Following checking from behind and game misconduct penalties issued to Blades captain Nick Zajac, Houck continued his hot stick by burying a bounce off Saskatoon defenceman Mitchell Wheaton on the power play at 11:58 of the third period.

Then, while on a power play of its own, Saskatoon made it a 4-2 game when a Brycen Martin blast from the point at 12:57 of third period found the back of the Calgary net.

With Hamm pulled for an extra-attacker, Gay brought the Blades to within one when his wrist shot from just inside the blue line found its way behind a screened Porter with 1:41 to play.

That’s as close as the Blades would come on this night.

Fazleev, from Twarynski and Zipp, buried an empty-netter for Calgary at 19:33, before rookie Kastelic rounded out the game scoring with his second goal in as many games with 21 seconds left on the clock.

The Hitmen visit the Prince Albert Raiders (11-3-1-1) tomorrow at 6 p.m. MT, before returning home to face Central Division rival Edmonton Oil Kings (4-9-3-0) Friday night. Game time at the Scotiabank Saddledome is 7 p.m.

OT:
• Sixteen-year-old rookie centre Mark Kastelic, who notched his first Western Hockey League goal during Sunday’s win over Seattle, dropped the gloves for his first WHL fight with 20-year-old Blades captain Nick Zajac with over six minutes played in the second frame. Later that same period, Carsen Twarysnki took offence with former teammate Terrell Draude after the former Hitmen laid a questionable hit on Zipp. Then, after Zajac delivered a dangerous looking hit on Zipp behind the Calgary net, winger Taylor Sanheim made the Blades captain pay.

• With goaltender Brendan Burke returning to the lineup from a lower body injury for this two-game road trip, the Hitmen reassigned rookie netminder Kyle Dumba to the Calgary Mustangs of the Alberta Junior Hockey League this morning. In the span of a week, the Hitmen goaltending tandem has gone from the rookie duo of Dumba and Lasse Petersen to veterans Burke and Cody Porter. 

• Newly named Hitmen captain Colby Harmsworth was finally able to experience donning the ‘C’ after being sidelined since Oct. 21 with an upper body injury – in his hometown no less. Captain Colby was named the 23rd captain in franchise history on Wednesday.