Graham grounds Raiders with hat trick; Blades win in OT

Ryan Graham’s third goal of the night in overtime gave the Saskatoon Blades a stunning 4-3 win in front of a sellout crowd at the Art Hauser Centre.

In addition to opening the scoring, the 19-year-old Saskatoon winger tied the game at 19:36 of the third period with Blades goalie Brock Hamm on the bench for a 6th attacker. Graham found the puck in a goal mouth scramble and lifted a backhander in off the arm of Raider goalie Rylan Parenteau.  Graham’s game opening goal was the conversion of a rebound after a speedy move to the net by Cameron Hebig about 8-minutes into the first period. He also hooked up with Hebig and import defenseman Libor Hajek finishing the slick three way passing play for the game winner.

It looked as if Reid Gardiner’s 13th goal of the season with less than three minutes left would stand up as the winner as he sniped a shot into the top corner after a nice feed from Austin Glover who made a similar play on Simon Stransky’s first period goal. 

Jesse Lees gave the Raiders a 2-1 lead heading to the third period with a shorthanded goal following a great move on the Blades defense just past the midway point of the second period.