Prince Albert’s sweep ends Regina’s streak
Dave Struch made a rather blunt assessment of his team’s effort on the opening weekend of the regular season, but not without providing some context.
The Regina Pats head coach was quick to give credit where it was due after the Prince Albert Raiders completed a home-and-home sweep on Saturday night with a 3-1 win at the Brandt Centre.
That outcome was preceded by the Raiders’ 7-2 rout of Regina on Friday at the Art Hauser Centre — a fitting onset to what some WHL observers believe could be Prince Albert’s best season in 20 years. Struch is already a believer. “Prince Albert is going to be one of the top teams in the conference, if not the league,” he predicted. “We’re going to give them some credit but, as individuals, our players have to look in the mirror to give themselves a self assessment of whether or not they want to be a part of the identity of this team.
“Because of the situation we’re in, coming off a Memorial Cup year, for us to have success we need to put the work boots on every single day. As soon as we understand that, we’ll start to have some more consistent games.”
The Pats had consistently beaten up on Prince Albert prior to Friday’s opener, winning 15 straight games over the previous two seasons.
That streak came to an end, with this Regina team entering a difficult rebuild.
The Raiders, meanwhile, look to be headed in the opposite direction.
“We haven’t beat these guys — and beat these guys here (at the Brandt Centre) — in forever,” noted head coach Marc Habscheid. “To win two games against these guys is good. They have players who have won here for a few years so they’re still a good team. We want to make sure we take that next step and don’t come in and hope to win, but expect to win.”
The Raiders haven’t won an East Division title since 1998-99, which is also the last time they reached the 40-win plateau.
Prince Albert showed signs of what might be to come last season by posting one of the league’s best second-half records before taking the top-ranked Moose Jaw Warriors to the precipice in the first round of the playoffs.
“We have a team with some experience and I think the guys got a little taste of it last year against Moose Jaw,” said Habscheid. “With a bounce here or there we should have won that series. The best part about that is we weren’t happy with losing. We expected to win. That’s a cultural thing that we want.”
The Pats face very different challenges, trying to develop a younger team that’s “still learning how to play in the Western Hockey League,” noted Struch, who knows one sure way to accelerate the process.
Unfortunately, the effort level wasn’t consistent enough on the weekend.
“When you look at the big picture, there’s no excuse for a lack of work ethic,” he continued. “In the end, that’s all we’re asking for from our guys. If we’re going to make mistakes working hard, we can accept that and get better with it.
“The execution stuff is going to happen with time. It’s not a concern if we’re working hard consistently. Those are (important) things, especially when you come up against good teams. If we don’t have everybody going every night, working hard, it’s going to be really difficult to win. The sooner we understand that, the better off we’ll be.”