When it comes to top-ranked Pats, speed kills
Brooks and Steel sounds like a country duo. And that’s probably appropriate since they represent Regina.
They are, in reality, forwards on the hottest thing going up the charts in the Western Hockey League.
Sam Steel leads the WHL with 37 points in 16 games while captain and defending WHL scoring champion Adam Brooks has 26 points in just 12 games with a Pats team that comes into Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre undefeated in regulation time at 15-0-3 and with the top ranking in the Canadian Hockey League.
Add Filip Ahl’s and Dawson Leedahl’s 25 points each, and Jake Leschyshyn’s and Connor Hobbs’ 24 points each, and there are six Pats in the top-20 of league scoring as they get ready to play the Victoria Royals tonight.
This isn’t a hockey team. It’s a Gatling gun that fires pucks.
“When you win it’s a fun ride,” said Steel, a 2016 first-round draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks.
He was talking about the 16-hour bus ride from Edmonton to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal following Wednesday night’s 4-2 victory over the Oil Kings.
That also could have been a metaphor for the Pats’ entire season to date.
“Everybody is buying in and we have good chemistry,” said Steel, a five-foot-11 centre from Sherwood Park, Alta.
It wasn’t always like this. A struggling Pats team missed the playoffs in 2012-13. But that allowed Regina to select Steel with the second overall pick in the 2013 WHL bantam draft.
“It was a rebuilding phase when I joined the team as a 16-year-old. All the moves management has made have paid off,” said Steel.
That might be the understatement of the WHL season.
“We are a fast-skating team that is very offensive,” said Brooks.
The 20-year-old wasn’t noticed by the pros until late in his junior career, and selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the fourth round of the 2016 draft. Recording 120 points, which Brooks did last season for the Pats, is bound to get you noticed.
Now comes a final year of junior that could be one to remember for Brooks and his Pats mates. But with being undefeated comes that target on the jersey.
“Every team wants to knock us off,” said the five-foot-10 Brooks.
The Royals (12-8-2), meanwhile, look in the mirror and see everything Victoria was last season in winning the WHL regularseason championship with a fast and furious approach despite being undersized.
“There is so much speed on this Regina team,” said Royals sniper Tyler Soy.
A fellow draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks, Soy has gotten to know Steel. When asked what Steel does well, Soy replied: “Everything.”
“[Steel] is such a sweet skater and such a smart player,” Soy said.
“Not many teams have been able to defend against him so far.”
The Royals will have to if they are to make a statement to the league tonight.
“This will be a good test to see where we are at,” said Royals head coach Dave Lowry.
Jack Walker got to see fellow Leafs draft pick Brooks in Toronto training camp. The Victoria forward also sees many other reflections back at him throughout the Pats roster.
“Regina is similar to us. They have fast skaters and we have to tighten up in the defensive zone and stay out of the penalty box,” said Walker.
ICE CHIPS: Former Royals forward Ty Westgard is back in the B.C. Hockey League. The Royals traded the WHL rights to Westgard to the Portland Winterthawks on Wednesday for a conditional bantam draft pick. But Westgard decided not to report to Portland and instead return to his former BCHL team, the Surrey Eagles.