Sports briefs: Saskatoon Blazers defeated in West Regional final

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The Saskatoon Blazers and the Brandon Wheat Kings met twice at the Telus Cup West Regional championship — first in the opening round robin game and once in the final — but both games ended in a loss for the Blazers, including a 1-0 overtime loss to the Wheat Kings on Sunday.

In that game, the teams were scoreless through 60 minutes of regulation play, but Brandon forward Brady Turko beat Blazers’ goaltender Grayson Malinoski two minutes and 21 seconds into overtime to secure the victory and a berth for this team at the Telus Cup Championship (April 22-28 in Membertou, Nova Scotia) as the West representative.

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The Blazers earned their way to the final by finishing 2-1 in the tournament’s round robin, which began April 4.

In their first game of the regional championships against the Wheat Kings on Thursday, Cole Harris scored the first goal for the Blazers one minute and 38 seconds into the second period, but it was the team’s only goal as they fell 4-1.

The Blazers turned it around after that, as Saskatoon goalie Madex Kabrud made 14 saves to record the shut out and lead his team to a 6-0 victory over the Thunder Bay Kings on Friday, and followed that up with a 4-2 win against the host Winnipeg Wild on Saturday, with Preston Baerwald scoring twice.

Bombers, Mustangs lead SJHL semifinals

It’s a two-game lead for both the Melfort Mustangs and the Flin Flon Bombers in their respective best-of-seven Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League semifinal series.

Taking on the Humboldt Broncos, Ryan Duguay and Chase Friedt scored twice to lead the Mustangs to a 4-3 victory in Friday’s Game 2.

This after opening the series on Thursday with a 4-2 win that saw Duguay also score a pair of goals.

Game 3 of the series is scheduled for April 9 in Humboldt.

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In the other series, six different Bombers scored in Game 2 on Friday to give Flin Flon a 6-2 victory against the Battlefords North Stars, while in the first game on Thursday, Justin Lies scored two power play goals to lead the Bombers to a 4-3 win.

The two teams will meet again for Game 3 on April 8 in Battlefords.

Quakers lead Capitals 3-1 in PJHL final

The first four games of the best-of-seven Prairie Junior Hockey League final series between the Saskatoon Quakers and Regina Capitals have each been decided by a single goal, with the Quakers coming out on top in three of the meetings.

Saskatoon’s most recent victory came on Saturday in Game 4, when Curren Wintonyk-Point secured a hat trick on an overtime goal, leading the Quakers to a 6-5 win.

Earlier in the week, in Thursday’s Game 3, Saskatoon won 4-3 with four different Quakers scoring.

The series opened with Saskatoon winning 3-2 in overtime on March 30, before falling to Regina 2-1 on April 1.

Game 5 of the series is scheduled for April 7, but results for the game were not available at time of publication.

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