Saskatoon Blades forward Rowan Calvert (23) battles for the puck with Portland Winterhawks defenseman Carter Sotheran (59) during WHL action in Saskatoon on Wednesday, January 11, 2023.
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1st WHL purpose: Saskatoon Contacts call-up scores winner for Portland over Blades

By Gwen Christensen

  1. Saskatoon Blades
  2. Local Sports
  3. hockey

“It felt good to get the monkey off the back right away and I’m hoping to score more.”

Saskatoon Blades forward Rowan Calvert (23) battles for the puck with Portland Winterhawks defenseman Carter Sotheran (59) during WHL action in Saskatoon on Wednesday, January 11, 2023. Photo by Matt Smith /Saskatoon Star Phoenix

Winterhawks 3, Blades 1

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Braeden Jockims got to shoot first and answer questions later… from the media.

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Jockims, a Saskatoon native playing in his second-ever Western Hockey League game with the Portland Winterhawks, scored the game-winner as the Winterhawks downed the hometown Saskatoon Blades 3-1 in WHL action Wednesday night at SaskTel Centre.

Jockims was able to make his first-ever WHL count as Portland improved to 28-6-2-1. Saskatoon, which has five players sidelined by injury, slipped to 26-7-2-1.

“It was pretty exciting, especially scoring in front of family and friends,” said Jockims, who was called up from the Saskatoon AAA Contacts prior to the trade deadline.

“It was a great experience and hopefully I’ll score more for the rest of the year.”

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Jockims was able to convert on a two-on-break, streaking down the right side and electing to shoot.

“I was kind of thinking pass, but I knew, before the game, that their D really like to slide so I was kind of just waiting for him (Aidan De La Gorgendiere) to slide and then just shoot it away.

“It felt good to get the monkey off the back right away and I’m hoping to score more.”

It was a battle of two top 10 ranked CHL teams with the Blades coming in at No. 5 and Portland at No. 7.

Robbie Fromm-Delorme and James Stefan, with an empty-net goal, also scored for the Winterhawks, who led 2-1 after two periods.

Vaughn Watterodt, with his 18th goal of the season, scored the lone goal for the Blades, who mounted all sorts of pressure in the second period but had no puck-luck whatsoever.

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Grade A shots by the Blades were met by either iron or Portland goalie Dante Giannuzzi, who finished the night with 28 saves to be named the game’s No. 1 star.

“I thought their goalie was really good,” said Blades heads coach Brennan Sonne. “We had some really good looks. He made big saves and I don’t think it was missing the net or anything like that. He just made the save. It’s tough to beat that.”

The Blades have a tough week with a game Friday against Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats before returning home Saturday to play host to a world junior-stacked Seattle Thunderbirds squad.

“That’s where our focus goes really quickly,” said Sonne. “We’ve got to get our preparation in and get ready for that one.”

Saskatoon went 1-for-5 on the power play. Portland was 0-for-3.

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“Our penalty kill did a pretty job,” said Sonne. “I did like the second (period). We did get a lot of offensive-zone time, did some really good things. Our power play execution, I’m not really happy with it, honestly, recently. It’s been soft execution, not executing passes, soft passes, not (good) puck recovery — things that you need. We have skilled players, but, if you’re not going to recover pucks, you’re just going to have regrets and, honestly, I thought that on face-offs, I saw that on entries. So we’re going to have to figure that out. It’s just not going to work. We create stuff because we have talent, but it could be so much better if you couple that with work.

“So I wasn’t thrilled with the power play.”

Austin Elliott got his second straight start in net for the Blades who abandoned their ongoing goalie rotation. Elliott stopped 17 shots in the loss.

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BLADE BITS: Announced attendance was 2,979 with a healthy contingent of Portland fans. The Winterhawks feature a heavy Saskatchewan contingent as Jockims, Ryan McLeary, Gabe Klassen, Josh Zakreski other Rhett Ravndahl all hail from the wheat province … Three stars were 1) Giannuzzi, 2) Jockims and 3) Watterodt … Next action for the Blades is Friday in Regina. On Saturday, the Blades play host to the Thunderbirds at SaskTel Centre.

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    Blades get boost up front with Chiasson addition

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    Buyer beware: Blades go shopping at deadline but price too high

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