The rookie goaltender made 31 saves and was a mere 46 seconds away from posting his first-ever WHL playoff shutout as the Saskatoon Blades defeated the visiting Prince Alberta Raiders 4-1 before an announced crowd of 8,242 fans at SaskTel Centre.
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Blades 4, Raiders 1
Evan Gardner had been sick — as in ill — all week, but, on Friday night, he was just plain sick, as in really good.
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The rookie goaltender made 31 saves and was a mere 46 seconds away from posting his first-ever Western Hockey League playoff shutout as the Saskatoon Blades defeated the visiting Prince Alberta Raiders 4-1 before an announced crowd of 8,242 fans at SaskTel Centre.
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With the win, Saskatoon evens the best-of-seven WHL Eastern Conference quarter-final series at one game apiece.
Games 3 and 4 will be played Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, at the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert.
Game 5 goes next Friday back at SaskTel Centre.
“I’m pretty proud of him (Gardner),” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne. “He was pretty sick earlier in the week so he didn’t get practice time with the team. For him to prepare just with some morning ice, and just with our goalie coach Jeff Harvey who does such a great job of preparing these guys, I thought he did really, really well.
“He did a great job, considering the week that he had.”
Gardner, who had the lowest goals-against average in the WHL this season, got the news Thursday night that he’d be starting Friday after the Blades lost the opener 4-3 with Austin Elliott in net.
“I didn’t really look at it any different than any other start I’ve had throughout the year, but obviously the atmosphere in there was electric — that’s kind of playoff hockey for you,” said Gardner. “But I didn’t prepare any different for this game. I probably felt more calm than usual. I was just excited to get in there.”
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An unlikely source, burly shutdown defenceman John Babcock, got the Blades going Friday with a floater past a screened Raiders goalie Max Hildebrand just two minutes into the game.
“It’s nice when they go in but I wasn’t really looking on it,” shrugged Babcock, who had four goals during the regular season. “I was just trying to get pucks to the net. Fortunately, it went in.
“We came out to play. It was a lot better than (Thursday). We got one early which was nice and then we kept our foot on the gas the entire game.”
Babcock tipped his hat to the young goalie, Gardner.
“He was solid — very solid tonight,” said Babcock. “It’s good that you can trust him back there.”
Egor Sidorov, Easton Armstrong and Tyler Parr each scored on the power play for Saskatoon, which capitalized on three of four chances.
Neil Crocker spoiled Gardner’s shutout bid, during a 5-on-3 power play, with 46 seconds left on the clock.
Prince Albert, which went 1-for-5 with the man-advantage, trailed 1-0 and 3-0 by periods.
Final shots were 32-23 in the Raiders’ favour.
“I liked a lot that we learned a lesson in the second period,” noted Sonne. “We were up 1-0, an identical situation (to Game 1) … After that, we played Blades hockey. We came in waves, we changed in the offensive zone. I was really proud of our second period, the ability to learn that lesson.”
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Raiders coach Jeff Truitt liked his team’s effort but not the end result.
“We didn’t finish off — we had some looks but we didn’t finish,” said Truitt. “It was a hard game. It’s playoffs and we knew they were going to respond after Game 1 but our push-back was there, being physical and generating some stuff. But it doesn’t surprise me a little bit about the emotions — both teams want this and are going to work hard to get this.”
For his part, Gardner was tested early Friday and able to settle in and get into his zone.
“Obviously, I haven’t been on the ice a whole lot these past few days, just being ill,,” he explained. “I think the best-case scenario for me was getting a lot of rubber early in the game. That’s what I’m there for. I’m going to stop anything they put toward me.
“It (shutout) would have obviously been kind of cool but that’s not something I’m looking for. I’m looking more for the wins because that’s all that matters at this time of year.”
BLADE BITS: Three stars were 1) Gardner, 2) Armstrong and 3) Sidorov … Rookie William James saw his first WHL playoff action Friday, getting into the lineup with rookie Hudson Kibblewhite and Rhett Melnyk both being scratches along with D-men Nicholas Andrusiak and Carter Herman.
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