Jason Gardiner had an opening night to remember, but it wasn't enough as the Blues fell to the Selkirk Steelers 4-3 in a shootout.
Gardiner tallied all 3 goals for the Blues in front of a large crowd at the MTS Ice Plex.
The Blues came out flying in the first period, and at the midway point of the first were outshooting the Steelers 10-3, but couldn't get the puck behind Steeler netminder Joey Rewucki, who made several key saves in the early going to keep his team in the game.
Finally at 14:40 of the first, Gardiner notched his first with a backhand over the left shoulder of Rewucki, and gave the Blues a 1-0 lead.
Gardiner would get his second with 1:27 to go in the period to give the Blues a two goal lead heading into the dressing room.
In the second it was the Steelers turn to come out flying, and 1:13 in they got on the scoreboard as Derek Gingera deflected home a shot from the point, and the Steelers were within one.
Less than two minutes later Gardiner would complete the hatrick, this time with a delayed penalty coming up to the Steelers. Gardiner went outside on the defender, and fired a backhand that found it's way behind Rewucki, and the Blues had their 2 goal lead once again.
The Steelers thought they'd come within a goal once again midway through the period, as a shot from the point took a funny deflection, went high in the air, and found it's way in the back of the net. But the goal was disallowed because Blues goalie Brett Martyniuk was interfered with by Gingera. Gingera ended up disputing the call, and in the process took a 10 minute misconduct, and was ejected from the game.
The Steelers would get within one before the period was out, as Micheal Hay took a nice pass from Tyler Grove at the side of the net, and had nothing but daylight as he fired his shot behind Martyniuk making the score 3-2 after two periods.
In the third the Blues found themselves 2 men down, and the Steelers made them pay as Colan Jackson fired a slapshot from the point that beat Martyniuk, tying the game at 3.
It stayed that way through the period and into overtime. With less than 2 minutes to go in OT, Ben Morgan got called for hooking, and the Steelers had a 4 on 3 powerplay for the remainder of overtime, but the Blues penalty killers did a great job sending the game to a shoot out.
In the shootout, Blues Andrew Emmons and Jason Gardiner both were foiled by Rewucki, while Colan Jackson and Jory Geddes both found the back of the net for the Steelers, giving them a 4-3 win to open up the season.
These 2 teams will face off against each other again tonight (Saturday) this time in Selkirk. Puck drop is set for 7:30.
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