Blades Meet Craig And Raiders On Retro Jersey Night
It’s another retro sweater night as the Blades continue to celebrate the 50th season in franchise history tonight against the Prince Albert Raiders.
The Blades will meet Collin Valcourt, Ryan Coghlan, Graeme Craig and the rest of Raiders tonight while wearing their vintage “bridge” jerseys from the 1990’s. As has been the case on other special jersey nights, the Blades will auction off the gameworn sweaters throughout the game.
The Blades are coming off of a 6-2 loss to the Regina Pats last Saturday night. In that game Regina stormed out to a 5-0 first period lead over Saskatoon, chasing starter Alex Moodie from the game only 7:06 in. The Blades got 2nd and 3rd period tallies from Cameron Hebig and Connor Sanvido, but the comeback fell short. Dryden Hunt finished the game with a pair of goals while Morgan Klimchuk and Chandler Stephenson each posted 1G, 2A. On special teams the Blades were 0 for 3 on the powerplay and 3 for 5 on the penalty kill.
As mentioned above, the game is a unique one for a few members of each team. The game marks the first meeting between these teams since they swapped defenceman, with Graeme Craig heading to Prince Albert and MacKenzie Johnston and Tyler Dea heading to the Blades. They will each face their former team for the first time tonight. Collin Valcourt will also face the Blades for the first time since being traded to the Raiders.
Hear from the two new members of the Blades in Johnston and Dea by clicking here to watch an interview.
Tonight’s game is the sixth of the season between these clubs. So far the season series is as follows:
September 20th – Raiders 6 – Blades 1 – Collin Valcourt scored the Blades goal; Troy Trombley stopped 12 of 12 shots
September 21st – Blades 5 – Raiders 6 – Collin Valcourt, Brett Stovin, Matt Revel had 3 points each
November 12th – Blades 1 – Raiders 4 – Logan Harland scored the Blades goal; Alex Moodie stopped 42 shots
December 27th – Blades 2 – Raiders 5 – Ayrton Nikkel and Chase Clayton scored; Troy Trombley stopped 36 shots
December 28th – Raiders 4 – Blades 2 – Nathan Burns and Graham Millar scored; Alex Moodie stopped 34 shots
Saskatoon Blades top scorer Nikita Scherbak was in Calgary earlier this week, taking part in the NHL/CHL Top Prospects game, but he’ll be back in the lineup tonight. The right-winger from Moscow played on Team Cherry, who dropped the game 4-3 to Team Orr. Scherbak put up three shots in the game while playing on a line with left-winger Daniel Audette, and centre Chase De Leo. Scherbak currently leads the Blades in goals, assists, points and powerplay goals, having posted 24 goals and 56 points in 46 games.
Tonight’s game is also on Shaw TV. So, if you can’t make it to the rink you can always tune in on TV. Fans also have the option of following the game on WHL Live, listening along on 92.9 The Bull or following @bladeshockey on Twitter for all the game updates.
You can also find your tickets for the big night here.