The Saskatoon Blades built their fastest and earliest 3-0 lead of the season Friday, on the way to a 5-2 victory over the Rebels in Red Deer.

Cooper Williams, Kazden Mathies and affiliate call-up Jaggar John found the back of the net before eight minutes had elapsed. After that, the teams traded goals with Elias Pul and Rowan Calvert collecting the other Bridge City Bunch scores. Williams, Mathies and Pul each added an assist to their tallies while David Lewandowski and Hunter Laing chipped in two helpers each. The Blue and Gold out-shot the Rebels 31-24 as the Blades beat Red Deer for a sixth straight time, four of those in Alberta. Saskatoon takes a 28-23-6 record into Calgary Saturday, needing a regulation win to keep their hopes of a fourth place finish in the W-H-L’s Eastern Conference alive as they trail the Hitmen by seven points. Saturday’s game will be the fourth and final meeting of the season with the visiting team having won all three previous match-ups. Game time is 7 o’clock with CJWW’s broadcast starting at 6:45. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Les Lazaruk’s Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Dan Da Silva and Pul plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L website…..

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) RED DEER PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 2:31  16-11-27 4 11 16 27 41 6 7 12 24 27 1st 3:03  77-88-27 20 37 47 77 88 3 6 12 24 27 1st 7:58  67-37 21 25 37 47 67 3 6 11 20 21 2nd 12:33  88-77-4 4 13 20 77 88 7 9 17 20 21 3rd 8:35 PP  23-16-11

RED DEER Goals RED DEER PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 16:22  15-2-11 2 5 11 15 21 20 37 46 77 88 2nd 12:56  21 3 6 15 20 21 20 37 46 77 88