Friday, May 24, 2013

5/23 Recap: Makarov's season ends as Knights roll

Andrey Makarov saw his season come to an end Thursday as Saskatoon was eliminated from the 2013 Memorial Cup with a 6-1 loss to London. The tiebreaker game victory sends the Knights to Friday's semifinal versus Portland for the right to face Halifax in Sunday's final.

For Makarov, the season-ender was a mixed bag. He kept the Blades in the game for two periods with some big saves, but it appeared that both he and the over-matched team in front of him simply ran out of gas versus the high-powered Knights. London came out strong with three quick goals in the third period, causing coach Lorne Molleken to give Makarov the mercy pull with his club down by a 6-1 count. The 6-foot-1 netminder finishes the tournament with a 1-3 mark, a 4.09 GAA and .889 save%.

On Wednesday, Makarov again made some nice stops to keep the game competitive as Saskatoon closed out the round-robin portion of the tourney with a 4-2 loss to Portland, thrusting the Blades into the Thursday tiebreaker. Overall, the young goaltender played well given the 50+ day break between the WHL playoffs and the Memorial Cup, setting the stage for his first organized Sabres activity when development camp begins in July.