Legionnaires push Regina Pat Canadians to overtime

Josh Stang scored a powerplay goal for a 1-0 Swift Current lead after one period and Cody Spagrud scored to make it 2-0 5:37 into the middle stanza.

Rhett Kingston scored for Notre Dame and then Angus Scott scored while shorthanded to make it 2-2 after two periods. Egor Popov scored the game winner with 3:57 remaining in regulation and Jeff Fasegha added an empty net goal for the 4-2 final.

Shane Blomquist suffered the loss with 26 saves, while Clarke Flegel earned the win with 16 saves.

Evan Armstrong, Bryce Hall, and Keenan Lugt picked up assists for the Legionnaires.

Thursday, the Legionnaires took the Regina Pat Canadians to overtime before losing 3-2 when Michael Eskra scored with 2:14 left in the extra period.

The Legionnaires fell behind 1-0 in the first period after allowing a shorthanded goal to Regina’s Adam Edmands.

They responded in the second period with powerplay goals from Evan Armstrong and Connor Odelein to lead 2-0 after two periods. Bryce Hall assisted on both goals and Brody Doepker and Carter Doerksen added a single assist.

The Legionnaires outshot Regina 19-4 in the third period but Cohen Yano tied the game 3:41 into the final frame to force overtime.

The Legionnaires finished two-for-eight on the man-advantage and held Regina without a goal on their two powerplay opportunities.

Cameron Pateman earned the win for Regina with 38 saves on 40 shots.

“The first period we came out and the battle level was pretty high,” said assistant coach Scott Cassidy. “We were ready to compete tonight with Regina. We took over in the second and third periods. We just did the shot calculation and we had 35-18 shots and it ended 40-29.”

He said it was an improved performance from their recent play.

“The team played better tonight than we have in the last few games. It just comes down to being ready to play for 60 minutes. It is not overly complicated. We go out and okay a simple game of hockey and force the other team to make mistakes. Tonight we did that for the most part and just didn’t get rewarded in the end.”

The Legionnaires really turned it on in the second and third periods.

“Again it was just keeping it simple right. It starts with just getting the puck in their end, getting it deep, and forcing their D-men to make a mistake. Then once we had it in their end I thought we cycled the puck really well. We had that fourminute powerplay and then another powerplay that really helped with our time of attack in their zone. Our puck movement was good and the boys were in the right positions.

The goals that we scored, they weren’t the prettiest, but they were nice with boys going to the net and good hockey goals, so we are happy with that.”

Cassidy said it was disappointing to allow the overtime winner.

“Yeah it is another heartbreaker for us, but character for our team to show that we can put up a fight with one of the better teams in the league for 65 minutes of hockey. That’s the thing with sudden death overtime is it is going to go either way.

“We killed that penalty off, we started a man down and went from there. It just wasn’t our night tonight in the end.”

Shane Blomquist took the overtime loss with 30 saves. The Odessa native has appeared in 23 of the team’s 24 games so far this season.

“He didn’t do anything overly special tonight. He just made the saves and that is what you ask your goaltender to do.

“He has been a rock for us in the net for I think this is 23-24 games in a row. We are really happy with his performance tonight,” said Cassidy.

The Legionnaires improved their record to 6-152-1 in the overtime loss. They will be on the road this weekend to visit the Prince Albert Mintos (14-64-0) on Saturday and the Beardy’s Blackhawks (4-141-1) on Sunday.

They will play their final game of 2013 on December 19 when they visit the Moose Jaw Generals (13-63-0).