The chill of victory in a near-defeat
This was going to be another column about Duron Carter. Then the Regina Pats began to stink up the joint.
A 4-1 third-period lead went up in smoke Saturday as the Prince Albert Raiders scored three successive goals, the latter of which came with just 37.2 seconds remaining in regulation time.
Cameron Hebig subsequently scored in overtime to give Regina a 5-4 victory, but that did little to placate John Paddock.
“It feels like a loss,” the Pats’ head coach and general manager lamented as a sellout crowd of 6,484 filed out of the Brandt Centre and into a biting Saskatchewan winter.
Paddock was clearly experiencing the chill of victory, as evidenced by this exchange with a grizzled gargoyle of the media.
Me: “You said it feels like a loss. Do you feel any better because it wasn’t?”
Paddock: “Not really, because it’s deeper than that. We had an opportunity to take a step by playing a complete game, a hard game, and they unintentionally decided not to.”
Blame the media.
With fewer than eight minutes left in the third period, and the Pats presumably in control of the WHL game, I turned to my wife and began to coo.
“Why don’t we leave with three minutes left and beat the traffic?” I suggested, lovingly, while luxuriating in Section 113, Row 5, Seat 7.
“Really?” said Chryssoula Filippakopoulos, who has requested anonymity.
Not even five seconds later, Regan Nagy scored to reduce the Pats’ lead to 4-2.
Parker Kelly sniped 15 seconds later, and it was 4-3.
So much for exit, stage right. The Pats proceeded to impressively kill off a two-man disadvantage, which lasted 1:41, only to surrender a Kody McDonald goal with Raiders netminder Ian Scott pulled for an extra attacker.
So much for Duron Carter, The Sequel.
Hebig saved the day with 47 seconds remaining in overtime, burying a sweet feed from Sam Steel — who celebrated his 20th birthday in fine style by registering four points.
Watching Steel and Hebig fly around the ice at the same time is comparable to marvelling at the Adam Brooks/Austin Wagner tag team that helped the Pats win a franchise-record 52 games and the Eastern Conference title last season.
But, overall, there aren’t many parallels between this season’s Pats (27-22-5-0) and the 2016-17 edition — which is unsettling in light of the fact that Regina is the host team for the 2018 Memorial Cup.
Even while posting an exciting overtime victory, the Pats did not allay concerns about whether they possess the mettle that will enable them to credibly contend for a CHL title.
The Pats seemingly possess the requisite talent, following a massive mid-season makeover by Paddock, but are there sufficient amounts of character, desire and commitment?
Paddock singled out several players by name during a pointed post-game assessment, labelling the effort (?) as a whole as “very discouraging — very disappointing.”
The two-time WHL coach of the year noted that after the Pats produced a pair of practically perfect periods, “Every player, from top to bottom, crapped the bed.”
The onus is now on the Pats to rebound from that, er, victory.