Not So Home Sweet Home For Blades:

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PHOTO COURTESY: Steve Hiscock

The Saskatoon Blades put on a furious effort late in the game on Saturday night, but still dropped a 3-2 decision to the Regina Pats. Dyson Stevenson took home first star honours in the game, scoring a pair of goals for Regina.

The game started off with a fight as a pair of veterans dropped the mitts a few minutes into the game as Dyson Stevenson took on the reigning Blades player of the month in Collin Valcourt. The two forwards exchanged punches near the Pats blueline as Valcourt earned the take down. The shots at that point of the frame were 6-1 for the Pats and they kept that pressure on, only to be stymied by Blades goalie Troy Trombley. With 12:30 remaining Dryden Hunt was left wide open in front. His deke to the backhand left Trombley out of position, but Hunt was robbed on his attempt by a diving play by the Blades goaltender. After several other good chances, the Pats finally broke through Trombley on the powerplay. A point shot was stopped by Trombley, but Hunt got his revenge, finding the rebound on the doorstep and scoring his 2nd of the season at 18:05 to make it 1-0. That was the only offence of the period, as the Blades were outshot 20-4 in the period.

Trombley kept being tested early in the second period as the Blades were on the penalty kill. The big Blades goaltender faced a number of good chances from in close, but he had all the answers. After coming close on a Matt Revel chance earlier in the period, the Blades were finally able to find offence at 13:25 of the period. The tying goal came after an Ayrton Nikkel point shot left a rebound on the door step. Blades veteran Brett Stovin found it first and put it past Dawson MacAuley to make it a 1-1 game on his 9th of the season. Saskatoon then nearly took the lead when Collin Valcourt made a nice kick play at the offensive blueline to Nikita Scherbak, who then fed Nathan Burns, but his high hard shot was stopped. That save would be key as the Pats would regain the lead at 16:33. That tally came on a 2 on 1 as Dyson Stevenson found the rebound after the first shot was stopped by Trombley, and beat the goalie fivehole to make it a 2-1 game. Saskatoon would be robbed in the final minute of the period when MacAuley made a toe save on Valcourt after a slick feed from Scherbak, with the score sitting at 2-1 through 40 minutes. The shots were 41-13 at this point of the game in favour of the Pats.

Saskatoon had a chance early in the third period as Logan Harland walked down the right wing, firing a backhand on MacAuley, who had an answer. Saskatoon then had a chance on the man advantage with 12:43 to play in the game, but also couldn’t capitalize. Saskatoon continued to push with chances from Nelson Nogier from the point with 6:45 to play and a good look from Scherbak with 6 minutes left, but in both cases rebounds couldn’t be found by Blades forwards around the net. Regina then took advantage of one of their chances at 16:26. The goal came as Stevenson separated himself onto the off-wing on the rush, took a feed from Chandler Stephenson and roofed it past Trombley to make it 3-1 Regina. The Blades answered back, though, less than a minute later when Brett Stovin fed Cory Millette at the side of the net and he netted his 8th of the season to get Saskatoon back within one. Saskatoon then pulled the goalie with under a minute to play, held the play, but couldn’t beat MacAulay again. The Pats goalie made 21 saves as the final was 3-2 for the Pats.

Dyson Stevenon was the first star after netting a pair of goals. Troy Trombley was the second star after making 46 saves in the losing cause. On special teams, Saskatoon was 0 for 4, going 4 for 5 on the PK.

The Blades next game goes on December 10th when they play host to the Edmonton Oil Kings.

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