The effort that carried the Wheat Kings through the battle with the Prince Albert Raiders wasn’t at the same level against the Saskatoon Blades, and the team paid for it.
Luke Shipley, Roger McQueen, and Marcus Nguyen scored, but the Wheat Kings dropped a 4-3 game to the Saskatoon Blades. Carson Bjarnason stopped 34 shots in his first appearance of the season.
Unlike the first period in Prince Albert that went back and forth, the Wheat Kings had to weather something of a storm from the Blades in the opening 20 minutes. Thanks to some timely saves by Bjarnason, including on a breakaway by Cooper Williams, the Wheat Kings got out of the first period even at zero.
The second period was far wilder on the offensive side. It started with Shipley, following up the rebound of Nolan Flamand’s shot and snapping it home for the 1-0 lead.
It was the Blades who roared to life from there, however. First, Ben Riche finished off a 2-on-1 he started. Then, Kohen Lodge found a rebound in front and tapped it home for the lead. Finally, Rowan Calvert finished off a three-way passing play off the rush to make it 3-1.
After having a goal waived off, the Wheat Kings went to the power play, and it came through for them. Flamand showed off his set-up chops again, feeding it to McQueen from below the goal line for the one-time goal to get the Wheat Kings back within one.
After pressing early in the third, the Wheat Kings got rewarded on a sneaky shot from Nguyen. After Flamand did yeoman’s work to hold the zone, he spotted Quinn Mantei at the left point, who drove around the zone before feeding it to Nguyen. He just snuck one home from a tough angle to tie the game.
But the good feeling on the Wheat Kings bench was not to last. While killing a late double-minor for high-sticking, the Wheat Kings lost sight of a puck off a double deflection, and Calvert found it first, tapping it home to put the Blades up one late.
The Wheat Kings got into the offensive zone with less than a minute to go and relentlessly drove the net, but their luck had run out. The Blades took the 4-3 win.
The Wheat Kings get their shot at redemption on home ice on Friday night. Puck drop is 7:00.
