No quit in Hitmen, says ex-Pat Reagan
C A LG ARY Brady Reagan isn’t finished with the Regina Pats.
Although he was traded by Regina more than two years ago, the Calgary Hitmen defenceman hasn’t completely severed all ties to the club that drafted him in 2012 and sent him to the Lethbridge Hurricanes midway through the 2014-15 WHL season.
“That was a long time ago,” chuckled Reagan, 19, who still has a relationship with members of the Pats. “If we see each other in the summer, we’ll say hi. It’s not like we’re enemies off the ice but during playoffs you have to be.”
Reagan is taking that mindset to heart as his team prepares for a possible elimination game on Thursday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome (7 p.m., CKRM, Access7).
The Pats lead 3-0 in a best-ofseven Eastern Conference quarterfinal and are looking to complete the sweep in Game 4.
The Hitmen have other ideas.
“We’ve got nothing to lose,” said Reagan. “The season is on the line and we have to come out and hit them with everything we’ve got.”
When a team is down 3-0 — facing nearly insurmountable odds — it raises the question of whether that squad will wave the white flag or fortify its ranks in preparation for a last stand.
Reagan insisted his team will do the latter.
“We’re going to come to battle,” said the 6-foot-3, 215-pounder.
“(Quitting) might be something that a lot of people are thinking of us right now but that’s not going to happen at all.
“We might have (lost) the first couple games but we wore them down a lot. We were hitting them, we were skating, we were doing all we could to wear them down for the rest of the series. If we come out with this game (Thursday), the next ones will be easy too.”
The Hitmen can derive some confidence from that fact each of the first two games in the series (5-2 and 5-1 losses in Regina) weren’t decided until the third period. The Pats flipped the script by jumping out to an early lead in Game 3 but it was Calgary that finished strong, outshooting the visitors 43-35 en route to a 5-2 loss.
Fresh off being named the CHL player of the week, Sam Steel recorded his first WHL hat trick.
Dawson Leedahl and Wyatt Sloboshan had the other goals, while Calgary ended Tyler Brown’s shutout bid with a pair of late goals from Matteo Gennaro and Luke Coleman.
“Brown played well,” said Reagan. “He had a couple of good saves early and they capitalized on their chances, which we have to do better. He’s not going to play that good every game. We know that. We know he had a lucky game so we’re going to come back and hit
him with everything we have.”
The challenge for the Hitmen is daunting. They faced an uphill climb heading into the series as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, but the task is even tougher now that they’re trying to dig out of a 3-0 hole against the WHL’s regular-season champions.
“We just have to try and win one game,” said assistant coach Trent Cassan, a former head coach of the SJHL’s Yorkton Terriers.
“It has been a struggle to get that first one but regardless there’s still a lot of competitiveness and pride in our group. We can’t win four games (Thursday). I know it’s a cliché but it has to be a pretty simple approach. Just try and survive for another day.”