Pat Canadians rolling into regionals

MURRAY MCCORMICK

The Regina Pat Canadians’ recent success is a group effort.

Head coach Darrin McKechnie feels the team wouldn’t have advanced to the Telus Cup West regional tournament — a four-team event that runs Thursday to Sunday in Steinbach, Man.— without the backing of a long list of supporters.

McKechnie listed the WHL’s Regina Pats, the players’ parents, the coaching and management staff and, of course, the players as key to the success of the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League champions.

“You can have everything in place that you want, but ultimately, you need good players,’’ said McKechnie, whose team has won its last seven playoff games. “We’ve been fortunate enough over the last few years to get some really good players.’’

McKechnie noted that past players and coaches set the stage for this current run.

“I’m just trying to keep it going, or leave it in a better place, if and when I do go,’’ McKechnie said. “Our coaching staff is so good that I’ve often said, I can disappear for a month and the team wouldn’t miss a beat, because we have such quality people in place.”

The Pat Canadians have enjoyed quite a three-year run. In 2014-15, they won their first provincial title since 1999 and finished third at the Telus Cup national tournament with Brad Herauf as head coach.

In 2015, McKechnie stepped down as a Pats assistant coach to focus on his new position as an inspector with the Regina Police Service. He was then named head coach of the Pat Canadians, who finished first the during the 201516 regular season before being swept by the Notre Dame Hounds in the semifinals.

In 2016-17, the Pat Canadians again finished first overall, posting a 36-6-0-2 record. They clinched the league title by sweeping the Tisdale Trojans in the best-of-five championship series.

The Pat Canadians are now preparing to open play Thursday at regionals against the Winnipeg Wild. The other two teams are the Eastman Selects (host) and Thunder Bay Kings. The winner of the tournament advances to the Telus Cup national championship, running April 24-30 in Prince George.

“We haven’t seen any of these teams and we’ve had to talk to some people about them,’’ McKechnie said. “We just have to concentrate on what we do. Hopefully we do what we do better than they do.’’