Pats send Broncos to seventh straight loss
The seeds of the Regina Pats’ victory Wednesday in Swift Current may have been sewn Tuesday in Prince Albert.
On Tuesday, the Pats dropped a 5-3 WHL decision to the host Raiders in a game that Regina assistant coach Dave Struch said was one of his team’s best of the 2014-15 season.
On Wednesday, the Pats beat the hometown Broncos 4-1 in a contest that Struch also enjoyed watching.
“Our game was so good (Tuesday) night and it got even better (Wednesday) against a really good team that’s playing for their playoff lives,” said Struch, whose squad snapped a twogame losing streak.
“Our guys showed up and played really well.”
The game Wednesday completed the regular-season series between the Pats and Broncos. Regina went 3-5-0-0 against Swift Current, which may end up being the Pats’ first-round playoff opponent.
That’s assuming the Broncos can hold off the Moose Jaw Warriors. The loss was the seventh in a row for the Broncos (30-32-1-4), who are just two points ahead of the Warriors (29-33-4-1) in the race for third place in the East Division.
In Wednesday’s contest, the Broncos had an opportunity to seize the momentum early when Regina captain Braden Christoffer was handed a major and game misconduct for checking from behind at 8:01 of the first period.
After killing off the fiveminute penalty, the Pats played for another two minutes or so with only four players because there weren’t any stoppages of play that would allow Regina to get a fifth player on the ice. Even so, the Pats kept the Broncos at bay.
“That was huge,” Struch said of the seven-minute stretch. “Our penalty kill has slowly been developing into something of an asset for us.
“The guys who are out there are really smart. They read and react really well, so for them to stay as composed as they did and kill that whole thing off plus the extra time, it gave us a lot of momentum and we built off that throughout the game.”
Jake Leschyshyn opened the scoring for Regina at 17:22 of the first period, but the Broncos’ Jay Merkley tied things up at 18:49.
After a scoreless second period, Pavel Padakin put the Pats ahead 2-1 at 6:40 of the third. Just 10 seconds after Padakin’s goal, Jesse Gabrielle extended Regina’s lead to 3-1.
Gabrielle completed the scoring at 12:16 of the third when he sniped on a power play.
Tyler Brown made 29 saves for the Pats (36-22-54). Landon Bow stopped 23 shots in the Broncos’ net.
The Pats were without rookie centre Sam Steel, who left Tuesday’s game with a leg injury.
On Wednesday, Struch reiterated that the injury likely isn’t a long-term thing, but more examination is required.
“We’ve got to get him to see our doctors,” Struch said. “He’s just roaming around here doing nothing, so we’ll get him in (today) and then go from there.”
The Pats are to visit Moose Jaw on Friday before playing host to a rematch Saturday. Game time at the Brandt Centre is 7 p.m.