The Kootenay Ice got a taste of what it takes to play against a team hoping to win a Memorial Cup in their home barn, losing 6-3 to the tournament host Regina Pats on Tuesday at Western Financial Place.
The Ice made a game of it in the third period; the Pats had already scored six goals over 40 minutes on their way to the win, but Kootenay made it interesting with a pair of late markers as they tried to mount a comeback but ran out of time.
Ice head coach James Patrick said his team struggled to be physically involved all game.
“Our turnovers and willingness to engage and just not winning enough loose puck battles, I think that was the difference in the game,” Patrick said.
Sam Steel, a first round pick of the Anaheim Ducks in 2016, notched three assists for Regina, while scoring was provided by committee from Josh Mahura, Bryce Platt, George King, Robbie Holmes and Matt Bradley.
The Ice lit the goal lamp on a pair from Brett Davis and a single marker from Colton Veloso. Ice rookie Peyton Krebs picked up an assist and currently sits third in league rookie scoring.
Bailey Brkin made 33 saves in goal for Kootenay, while Tyler Brown stopped 23 shots for the Pats.
It was a tough start for the Ice, who went down by a goal early, but tied it up shortly afterwards, however, the Pats scored five unanswered markers afterwards to take a commanding lead on the way to the win.
Despite the loss, Patrick took a philosophical view of the result.
“I don’t think this is a step back,” Patrick said, “I think this is another lesson for the team about how hard it is to win in this league, how good some of the teams are. Regina is favoured to be the best team, they haven’t gotten off to a good start, but they’ve got some good players, so we need to play way better when we’re playing a team like that.”
Josh Mahura looked like he opened the scoring on a shot from the point, however, the goal was corrected in-house and awarded to Robbie Holmes, who was buzzing around the net.
Less than 30 seconds later, a speeding Keenan Taphorn drove to the net with the puck, but Davis picked up the rebound and stuffed it in to knot up the score at 1-1.
Patrick singled out the Taphorn twins for their strong play over the course of the night.
“I thought Keenan was one of our best guys today,” Patrick said. “He really drove, he skated, he worked — both Keenan and Kaeden, they’re pretty honest players who give you a good effort every night. I thought you could see Keenan really moving his legs, trying to drive, trying to get pucks behind their D and forecheck. He stood out for me.”
After Davis evened up the score, it was all Regina until the third period.
Matt Bradley scored the go-ahead goal, and Bryce Platt beat Brkin on a penalty shot after getting hauled down on a breakaway.
The Pats poured it on in the second period, as George King, Robbie Holmes and Josh Mahura padded the lead.
The Kootenay head coach noted that while Sam Steele or Jake Leschyshyn are well known offensive players, the bottom half of the Pats roster caused fits for the Ice all game.
“They’ve got good players, but I was really impressed with their third and fourth line with how hard they played on the puck,” Patrick said. “They came at us real hard, their fourth line got a big goal for them, that was one of the big goals that got them rolling.”
Patrick challenged his team in the second intermission to see how they’d respond to being down by five.
“When the score is 6-1, you want to see how your guys are going to compete and you want to see if they’re willing to play the system and you want to see if they’ll start trying to do some of the right things,” Patrick said.
The Ice were able to make things interesting in the third period, as Davis notched his second of the night on a wrister from the top of the circle on the powerplay, while Colton Veloso scored a carbon-copy goal six minutes later as the Pats continued to get into penalty trouble.
Those were the only two goals in seven opportunities with the man-advantage for the Ice, who were having trouble setting up in the offensive zone and moving the puck.
The Ice will host the Seattle Thunderbirds on Friday night in one of two home games over the weekend.
NOTES: Ice forward Peyton Krebs was named to the national Team Red squad for the World U17 Challenge by Hockey Canada on Tuesday. The Ice picked up a new goaltender in Duncan McGovern from the Medicine Hat Tigers on Monday, sending a 2019 fifth-round draft pick in return. McGovern was a fifth-round pick at 91st overall in the 2015 WHL Bantam Draft.
