WHL playoff round one preview: Calgary Hitmen vs. Regina Pats

 

The Regina Pats were the best team in the Canadian Hockey League throughout the season.

Still, they felt there was room for improvement.

When the Pats lost four straight games it was the right time to buy into some changes that head coach/general manager John Paddock wanted to see. The Pats simplified their game and played a more direct style.

After allowing six goals on consecutive nights to Medicine Hat and Calgary, the Pats tightened up, won eight straight — allowing 14 goals over those eight games.

“We scored (at least) four goals in every one of those games. So that’s only one below what our average has been. It doesn’t hurt a lot of things,” said Paddock. “We’ve been grinding it out a little more and showing we can do that.”

The Pats set a franchise record for wins (52) and points (112) as they earned the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy as the regular season champions.

They enter their Eastern Conference quarter-final series as heavy favourites against the 2nd Wild Card, Calgary Hitmen.

It’s isn’t always easy to change what has been working. The Pats had given up five or more goals in a game 16 times this season and still only lost 12 games in regulation and 20 in total. They could afford to do that because they scored five goals or more 39 times this season.

However, Paddock convinced his team that their run-and-gun style wasn’t suited to prolonged playoff success.

Adam Brooks of the Regina Pats.

“Simplifying our game is huge for us,” said Pats captain Adam Brooks. “There are a lot of times we try to make an extra pass or an extra play at the line instead of just getting pucks in. I think our team is successful when he play down below the tops of the circles and cycling pucks. In order to get there we have to be chipping it in and get on it and that’s part of simplifying our game.”

Brooks finished with 130 points this season and teammate Sam Steel had 131 to lead the league. Their high-octane attack lead them to a record-breaking season and yet Brooks said buying into tweaking their style wasn’t hard.

“Part of being a successful team at the end of the year is buying into things, no matter what kind of style your team plays,” Brooks said. “We know that John (Paddock and assistant coaches) Dave (Struch) and Brad (Herauf) know what they’re talking about. They’ve been around the game for a long time. They’ve all had success and we know if we buy into what they’re preaching we’ll be successful.”

If there were any hold outs, their four-game losing streak helped make everyone a convert.

“It helped us realize that if we don’t play properly at this time of year, things aren’t going to go well for us,” Brooks said of what amounted to a slump for the dominant Pats.

“We had a lot of success and we didn’t face a whole lot of adversity and it may have cost us as we got away from our game a little there. Eventually it caught up to us and we had to change some things. Losing four in a row really helped us do that.”

The Hitmen allowed the more goals against 282 than any other playoff team.

Still, Calgary won their last meeting in Regina 6-2 and they won six of their final eight games to get into the playoffs with a 30-32-8-2 record.

Calgary

vs. 

Regina

1-2-1-0

Record

3-1

13

Goals For

19

19

Goals Against

13

125

Shots For

138

138

Shots Against

125

3 for 20 (15.0%) PP 6 for 17 (35.3%)
11 of 17 (64.7%) PK

17 of 20 (85.0%)

1

Fights

1

NHL Drafted Players: 

Calgary: Matteo Gennaro (WPG ’15), Jake Bean (CAR ’16), Beck Malenstyn (WSH ’16),  Jakob Stukel (VAN ’16).

Regina: Sergey Zborovskiy (NYR ’15), Austin Wagner (LA ’15), Filip Ahl (OTT ’15), Connor Hobbs (WSH ’15), Sam Steel (ANA ’16), Josh Mahura (ANA’16), Adam Brooks (TOR ’16).

Keys to Win: 

The key for Regina is to be themselves. If they play to the level they have shown all season, there’s no reason that their speed and skill on offense shouldn’t be enough to carry them to a series win.

Their defence will need to move pucks quickly to stymie the Hitmen forecheck and key the Pats’ lethal transition game. The Pats’ speed has been tough for everyone to handle and the Hitmen should be no exception.

Calgary needs to play five-on-five hockey and not take penalties for a start. They had the third-poorest penalty kill in the WHL this season and the Pats had the most potent power play. The Hitmen also had the third-poorest power play and will need to be much more potent on the man advantage to try to make up the discrepancy between the two offences.

The Hitmen have eight forwards on their roster who are six-foot-two or taller. Beck Malenstyn, Tyler Mrkonjic, Luke Coleman, Mark Kastelic and Matteo Gennaro are going to look to play a heavy game and make the Pats defence work below the circles. The more time the Hitmen spend grinding away along the boards 200 feet from their own goal, the happier they will be.

Injuries:

Calgary: Rookie C Tristen Nielsen missed the final two games of the regular season, but was not on the team’s injury report heading into the weekend. His status for Game 1 is unknown.

Regina: C Jake Leschyshyn is out for the season after undergoing knee surgery.

Suspensions:

Regina: Nick Henry has been suspended for Game 1 after he picked up a boarding major and a game misconduct in the Pats regular-season finale against Brandon.

Pick:

— Regina proves to be just too much for the Hitmen and win in five (4-1).