CANES regroup
Game 6 of Hurricanes/Pats series goes tonight at 6 p.m.
The Lethbridge Hurricanes are back home to take on Regina tonight in a must-win game
The Regina Pats have established an aptitude for playing the catch-up game. Now it’s time to assess their killer instinct. Thanks to a 5-3 decision over the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday night, Regina took a 3-2 lead in the WHL’s Eastern Conference final and can wrap up the best-of-seven matchup tonight at 6 p.m. at the Enmax Centre.
“It’s nice to finally be out in front,” offered captain Adam Brooks, whose team was down 1-0 and 2-1 earlier in the series. “Hopefully we can close it out. That’s the mindset getting on that bus tomorrow heading to Lethbridge. We’re going to do whatever it takes.”
It’s a new position for the Pats, who haven’t held the lead in a series since their first-round sweep of the Calgary Hitmen.
In the next round, Regina battled back from a 3-1 deficit against the Swift Current Broncos. The Pats were headed down a similar road versus Lethbridge before posting back-to-back wins — 6-2 at the Enmax Centre on Wednesday and 5-3 at the Brandt Centre on Friday.
“We really wanted this one,” said Pats defenceman Josh Mahura. “Going into their rink (for Game 6), it’s nice to be in the lead after last series. We want to go in there and win. (The Hurricanes) are going to be desperate and they’re going to come hard. We’re going to have to come harder.”
Those sentiments were echoed by head coach/GM John Paddock, who didn’t have a lot of good things to say about Game 5 — except the end result.
“I don’t think the better team won tonight like has happened so far in the series,” said Paddock, whose club was outshot 32-31. “I don’t know that they were on top of their game either, but I know that we weren’t even close to our game. We will play better on Sunday. We’ll probably have to play a lot better to win.”
The Pats certainly got off to a poor start in Game 5, failing to register a shot on net until the game was almost five minutes old.
By that time, Lethbridge already had a 1-0 lead.
It came 2:53 into the contest when rookie Josh Tarzwell— making his first appearance of the series — grabbed the puck in the high slot and released a weak backhand that floated past the glove of netminder Tyler Brown.
Mahura got it back with 4:23 left in the first period, but Lethbridge regained the lead 3:04 into the second with a power-play goal from Ryan Vandervlis.
Sam Steel responded 2:06 later with his first goal of the series and Filip Ahl gave Regina its first lead of the night with 6:31 left in the middle frame.
Egor Babenko tied it 2:25 later but the Pats regained the lead 6:25 into the third on a goal by Dawson Leedahl. Then things got interesting. Midway through the third, the Hurricanes had a glorious chance to tie it when they were awarded a 5-on-3 power play for 1:30. Regina’s penalty killers responded by slamming the door on Lethbridge, making an extremely tense situation rather painless for Brown.
Asked for his analysis on what went wrong during that pivotal two-man advantage, Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio redirected the question: “How do you analyze it?” he said, before ignoring the query for a second time. The Pats were more forthcoming. “It might have been our best minute and a half of the game,” said Paddock. “Guys held their ground, blocked shots, gave (the Hurricanes) as little as you could give on a five on three.”
Lethbridge eventually pulled goalie Stuart Skinner for an extra attacker. Steel fired a shot off the crossbar with 53.5 seconds left to give the 'Canes one last life, but Brooks snuffed it out when he threw himself in front of a subsequent shot from Tyler Wong.
Brooks then raced down the ice to retrieve his team's clearing effort. He got to the puck first and fired a no-look pass in front to Austin Wagner, who deposited it into the empty net with three seconds left.
“It’s part of playoffs; you have to bear down and you have to get in the shot lanes,” said Brooks, who had four assists in a first-star effort. “I think everyone in our dressing room wants to win very badly. Guys are selling out.” So are the Hurricanes. Although Paddock felt the better team lost on Friday, Lethbridge is the one facing elimination.
“Very seldom do you hear him give compliments to the other team as well,” said Wong. “We already knew that, but it’s good to hear that he knows it as well. Obviously, that means he is going to be hard on his guys to show up for a better performance on Sunday.
“They’re going to push, so we’ve got to be able to find a way to up our intensity even more and find a way to win a game. And then, who knows what can happen on Tuesday? It’s anyone's game.”