By Jeff D'Andrea

Icehawks shutout by Royals 5-0; winless in last four

Oct 18, 2011 | 11:41 PM

He gave up five goals, but nobody was blaming Prince Albert Icehawks goaltender Tyler Gordon for the team’s 5-0 loss at home Thursday to Saskatoon Royals.

In fact, the 17-year-old Gordon made 49 saves, including three circus saves in the second period to keep it a 1-0 game. Gordon kept it a 2-0 game until midway through the third period when the floodgates finally opened.

Icehawks head coach Trevor Gunville said after the game that although the team put him in a tough spot by surrendering 54 shots, Gordon did well to hold the fort as long and as well as he did.

“He’s a young goalie and he’s played well for us all season so far,” said Gunville.

“Tonight was a bad night for him (because) we gave up a lot of shots but he managed to keep us in for the game and allowed some chance for us to get back into the game, but we just didn’t capitalize on our chances.”

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Gunville said the Icehawks have to be better in their defensive zone, especially on the penalty kill to get back in the win column. Two of the Royals’ first three goals were on the powerplay.

“I thought we were weak in our own zone,” said Gunville.

“They’re a big team, they skate well and they come up hard and our young defence, it’s hard to adjust. They got a lot of their shots on the powerplay and we took some bad penalties that came back to bite us. It’s a learning process, that’s for sure.”

Although they were held scoreless, the Icehawks did generate some solid scoring opportunities, but were denied each time by Royals tender Jay Hudon, making 24 saves for the shutout.

“I thought we had some good chances, we put some pucks at the net,” said Gunville. “They got a good goalie and he made some good saves, he made the first save and their D was there to clear the rebounds.

“We didn’t generate the puck down low enough tonight and they were able to maintain us to the perimeter and allow the goalie to see the first shot and handle the rebounds.”

Michael Pylypow had both powerplay goals for the Royals and now has 14 points in nine games to lead the team. Austin Severson, Ty Gardiner and Kyle Jones also scored for the Royals, who improved to 5-4 with the win.

The Icehawks (1-3-0-1) will head down south to take on the Fort Knox (5-1) Saturday for their next game.

jdandrea@panow.com