On “Star Wars Night” Friday in Swift Current, the force was with the Saskatoon Blades.

Evan Gardner (pictured) stopped 22 shots for his second shutout of the season while the Bridge City Bunch denied the Broncos the room to work their offensive magic from the previous three head-to-head meetings as the Blue and Gold recorded an important 3-0 triumph. The win allowed the 35-22-7 Blades to stay tied with Brandon for first place in the W-H-L’s East Division. The Wheat Kings downed visiting Moose Jaw 4-1 Friday while the Prince Albert Raiders continue to lurk one point back after out-lasting Red Deer 4-3 in overtime on Friday night. The shutout was the sixth of his career for Gardner, a second round pick of the N-H-L’s Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2024 N-H-L Draft. Defenceman Jack Kachkowski notched the winning goal, opening the scoring just 4:53 into the game. Hunter Laing added insurance with an early third period power play tally while Cooper Williams scored from long range into a vacated Speedy Creek net. Williams added two assists, as did David Lewandowski. Saskatoon returns home to entertain the Regina Pats on Sunday at 4 o’clock at SaskTel Centre. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, plus Les Lazaruk’s Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Dan Da Silva and Kachkowski plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) SWIFT CURRENT PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 4:53  37-86-25 4 25 27 37 86 7 12 19 24 28 3rd 4:31 PP  27-25-86 3rd 19:04 EN  25 2 20 21 23 25 2 19 24 25 26 39

SWIFT CURRENT Goals SWIFT CURRENT PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2