Blades fall short against Ice in Winnipeg

The Saskatoon Blades couldn’t hold on to an early lead as they fell 5-3 to the Winnipeg Ice on Wednesday.

It was the second half of a Manitoba back-to-back for Saskatoon, which came away with a 2-1 overtime victory on Tuesday night against Brandon.

Lukas Hansen opened the scoring for the Blades late in the first period and then Egor Sidorov — scoring his team-leading 28th of the season — doubled the lead early in the second to give Saskatoon a two-goal edge.

But then Winnipeg showed why it’s the top team in the East Division this year, rattling off four unanswered goals — three in the second and one in the third — to take its own two-goal lead.

Zach Benson, with two, Zach Ostapchuck and Connor McClennon found the back of the net to give the Ice a healthy cushion in the third period.

Newly acquired forward Jake Chiasson scored his second goal as a member of the Blades to trim the Winnipeg lead to one, but McClennon potted an empty-netter for his second tally of the night to seal it for the Ice.

Winnipeg also took advantage of special teams, going 2-for-4 on the power play compared to just one opportunity for Saskatoon.

Benson was named the game’s first star, finishing the night with two goals and an assist, Winnipeg’s Matthew Savoie was the second star with two helpers and Blades goaltender Ethan Chadwick was the third star after turning away 43 shots on the night. Daniel Hauser stopped 26 shots for Winnipeg while collecting the win.

Saskatoon will have an opportunity to get some revenge as it returns home for a weekend series against both Manitoba teams.

The rematch between the Blades and Ice goes Saturday (7 p.m. puck drop) before Saskatoon faces the Wheat Kings on Sunday (4 p.m. puck drop). Both games are at SaskTel Centre.