New cornhole league taking off in Saskatoon
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The league launched at the beginning of August, and has been growing ever since.
No player on the Saskatoon Blades likes the Teddy Bear Toss game more than Tristen Robins.
The Blades sophomore scored the opening goal in the annual game for the second year in a row to make it rain teddy bears at SaskTel Centre in a 4-1 win over the Prince Albert Raiders Saturday.
“It’s a very unique streak to put together,” Robins said after scoring his 11th goal of the season. “I don’t think many people can say they scored twice in a row, so it’s a pretty cool experience. That first goal — it’s just electric when it happens.”
Robins has had a knack of producing some big performances against the Raiders in his young Western Hockey League career. He feels the nature of the intense rivalry brings it out in him.
“The fact that us two teams don’t like each other, and they finished us off in the playoffs last year. We still have a bitter taste in our mouths,” he said.
Tristen Robins does it again! For the second year in a row Robins opens the scoring for @BladesHockey against the @PARaidersHockey on Teddy Bear Toss day. #yxe pic.twitter.com/mfJEFZ01hm
— Keenan Sorokan (@KeenanSorokan) December 15, 2019
Saskatoon ended a four-game losing streak with the win. The team’s last win came on Nov. 23 against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
“We haven’t been stringing together the wins we’ve have liked. We haven’t been getting the bounces, but going into the break with this big win against a rival is a good feeling,” Robins said.
Interim head coach Ryan Marsh, filling in for Mitch Love while he helps coach Team Canada at the World Junior Championships, was happy to see his team enter the 12-day Christmas break with a win rather than coming back with the cloud of a losing streak hanging over the team.
“I liked the resiliency of our group to stay the course here and come today and play a good, solid 60 minutes of hockey when they could have been thinking about that break that’s coming up here,” Marsh said.
Saskatoon opened the scoring when Scott Walford found Robins all alone in front of the Raiders net moments after a Blades’ power play ended for a 1-0 lead after the first period.
Chase Wouters would widen the lead at the end of the second period by picking off a Raiders breakout pass and quickly shooting the puck past Raiders goaltender Boston Bilous for a 2-0 lead after two periods.
Ozzy Wiesblatt would get one back for Prince Albert to open the third period. Blades goaltender Nolan Maier would deflect Wiesblatt’s shot up in the air and into his own net.
Zach Huber would score directly off a faceoff win just 58 seconds later to preserve the two-goal lead before Eric Florchuk jammed home a rebound during a power play for the 4-1 win.
The Raiders and Blades will meet again on Dec. 27 at the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert once the break ends before playing the third consecutive game against each other the following day in Saskatoon.
Finishing the unofficial first half of the season with a winning percentage hovering around the .500 mark, Marsh had a few messages for his players as they depart to family all over the country.
“Really enjoy getting home and spending some time with your family. They deserve to get home, see friends (and see) family. Relax a little, stay active, but then come back revitalized with a tonne of energy ready to have a really good push in the second half,” Marsh said of his parting message to players.