Pats’ Leschyshyn putting knee issues behind him

Injury? What injury?

Regina Pats centre Jake Leschyshyn is now 13 games into his comeback from surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Despite a few bumps on the road to recovery, he sees no reason to look back.

“Every game I’m getting more and more comfortable,” Leschyshyn said Wednesday after a 5-1 win over the Kootenay Ice. “Things kind of just become routine again like they were before. I’m really happy with where I am.”

Leschyshyn may not be completely back to his old self, but he is ready to put the knee injury behind him.

It doesn’t even cross his mind during the course of a game.

“I think I’m well past that stage,” said Leschyshyn, a second-round pick of the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 NHL draft.

“Returning to play ... it was a lot of mental things. When you go into a corner, you don’t want to be thinking, ‘Is my knee going to give out?’ I was confident and that was the step I needed to take to get back on the ice.”

Leschyshyn took another step on Wednesday with a two-goal effort against the Ice.

His first marker was “a gift” courtesy of linemate Robbie Holmes, whose shot hit the post and went right to Leschyshyn for an easy tap-in.

There was nothing easy about his second goal.

Leschyshyn took a pass in stride at Kootenay’s blue-line and cruised into the left circle, snapping a perfectly placed shot over the far shoulder of goalie Kurtis Chapman.

“It’s good to see him get rewarded,” Pats head coach/GM John Paddock said. “With this knee stuff, it takes a while to feel comfortable. The last two games, he really worked hard. I thought before that, on that road trip, he was sort of caught in the middle and having a bit of a tough time to find his way and probably having such high expectations of himself. To get rewarded (Wednesday) was big, and the second goal was a bigtime goal.”

Leschyshyn has compiled four goals and nine points after 13 games, but he believes the best is yet to come. The 18-year-old centre is anxious to build on a breakout season in 2016-17 when he recorded 17 goals and 40 points in 47 games before the injury.

“Scoring goals is fun,” he said. “With some of the guys we lost last year, I think that’s a role I’m going to have to step up and chip in more often. I was able to (do that Wednesday) but I think it has to be more consistent.”

Patience is a virtue for Leschyshyn, who spent eight long months working his way back after the injury on Feb. 3.

Slowly but surely, his efforts are paying off.

“It’s just continually getting better and feeling better,” Paddock said. “His work ethic is always there but it seemed to me like the last two road games he sort of forgot about offence and just played. There were some good chances in those two games but then all of a sudden you get good chances (on Wednesday) and you score.

“He’s the least of our worries.” NOTE: After a visit with his surgeon in Winnipeg on Wednesday, it was determined that Pats right winger Nick Henry will wait one more game before returning from off-season shoulder surgery. He won’t play Friday against the Red Deer Rebels and — thanks to a break in the schedule — he’s expected to take advantage of a few more practices before returning for Regina’s next game a week later against the Moose Jaw Warriors.