10-DAY CHRISTMAS BREAK
Coach fears Pats will lose stride
The Regina Pats hope to avoid a delay-of-game penalty during their Christmas holidays.
Although the WHL’S mid-season break is a welcome reprieve, the Pats don’t want to interrupt the momentum they’ve built over the past few weeks after putting a horrendous start in the rear-view mirror.
“(The time off) is good, but it’s too long,” offered head coach Dave Struch, whose team concluded its first-half schedule on Sunday with a 5-4 shootout loss to the Winnipeg Ice.
“I think 10 days (is a concern) for any team that is having a little bit of success like we’ve had over the last little while.”
Regina saved its best for last by going 5-4-1-1 in the final 11 games before Christmas. It’s far from a parade-worthy achievement, but the team’s recent performance does qualify as a relative breakthrough after opening the season with a 1-10-0-0 record.
The Pats snapped a 10-game losing streak on Oct. 19 and went 7-8-3-1 the rest of the way, making obvious strides with each passing week.
Although they’ve benefited at times from facing weaker opponents like the Red Deer Rebels and Swift Current Broncos, the Pats have also taken points off some of the league’s top teams. That includes the Prince Albert Raiders (4-3 shootout win), Kelowna Rockets (4-3 win) and Winnipeg (3-2 OT loss and 5-4 SO loss).
“We’ve started playing our best hockey this month, even going back into November,” said goalie Max Paddock, who has been a key figure in the turnaround.
“We can definitely go into the break feeling good about ourselves. Just recharge the batteries and come back and build off that month we’ve been able to put together.”
The Pats also don’t want to mess with their recent success. That’s why they have mixed feelings about the timing of the break.
“It’s always nice to go home and see the family,” said forward Robbie Holmes. “But I want to keep things going and I think a lot of guys do too. We’ve been playing pretty well so I don’t want to stop.”
After spending most of the first half at the bottom of the league standings, the Pats have leapfrogged the Swift Current Broncos and Prince George Cougars over the past two weeks. They have an opportunity to continue moving up, with only two points separating them from the Moose
Jaw Warriors. They’re also just five behind the Seattle Thunderbirds and seven back of the Rebels and Tri-city Americans.
Although the Pats remain 11 points behind the Brandon Wheat Kings in the race for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot, they have two games in hand and five head-to-head games remaining.
They also have four games left versus Swift Current and five against Moose Jaw.
“We really have to take advantage of playing Moose Jaw a lot,” noted centre Logan Nijhoff. “They’re not too far ahead of us anymore. We have lots of games (in the division) that we need to take advantage of. The main thing is trying to take points away every night.”
If they do, the Pats might be able to get back in the playoff hunt.
It’s a tall order, but that’s the goal.
“We want to get into a playoff race,” said Struch, whose team opens the second half with a homeand-home set versus the Warriors. “I think our guys are just about there, but we do have to reset, re-energize and come back refocused and ready to play against Moose Jaw back to back.”
In hindsight, the Pats would already be in the thick of the playoff race with a little better start. Even if they had prevailed in just two or three winnable games during the skid, their outlook would be drastically different.
“I think it was more than two or three,” Struch said. “The way we played, it’s five or seven, but that’s the way it went for us. We had some really good games in that time. It definitely hurt us as far as already being in a playoff race. We’re going to have to work ourselves into one.
“If we keep doing the things we’re doing … we’ll let the results take care of themselves.”
I think 10 days (is a concern) for any team that is having a little bit of success like we’ve had over the last little while.