The Regina Pats and Swift Current faced off in a battle to stay out of the basement.
Despite their poor record, the Broncos are trending up, playing some good hockey as of late. The Pats have been an anomaly so far this season, very inconsistent in all facets of the game from the goaltender out.
The Pats went back to overage starter Roddy Ross for this one while the Broncos went with Reid Dyck between the pipes.
On a blizzardy Monday night in Regina, the Pats beat the Broncos 9-4 at the Brandt Centre. It was the most goals the Pats have scored in a game since they beat the Prince Albert Raiders 12-2 on December 3, 2016.
The win was the Pats’ third of the campaign. “We’ve been struggling to get in the win column to start the season, so it’s great to get a win like that and try and carry that momentum into tomorrow,” said Pats winger Zack Smith. “We played a really good game for the whole game today, which is something we’ve struggled with.”
Pats’ head coach Dave Struch echoed Smith’s comments, “We always talk about being connected and when we don’t have the puck, we have to do the right things to get the puck back. We came back and we had five guys helping out that backend.” Struch continued, “We did the right things and it helped us create some offense off our rush. We got paid for doing a lot of things right and I hope we can build off it for tomorrow night.”
First period
The Pats opened the scoring just a minute into the contest as Carson Denomie converted on a drop pass from Smith.
Six and a half minutes later the Broncos tied it up Eric Houk got free and tipped a shot through Ross to tie the game at 1-1.
The Pats took the lead twelve minutes in as Connor Bedard set up Smith on a 2-on-1 opportunity. Smith scored his first goal as he converted on the gift pass to give the Pats a 2-1 lead.
“The kid’s obviously unreal. He’s been making plays like that all year,” Smith said of Bedard, who assisted on both Smith’s goals. “I’m loving every minute of playing with him and Denomie. They’re both really good players who can put the puck in the net and they see the ice really well, so it’s been awesome.”
Logan Nijhoff made it 3-1 for the Pats. He found a loose puck behind Dyck and shoveled it in for his fourth of the season.
In an evenly played first period, the Broncos outshot the Pats 13-12. The Pats capitalized on their opportunities and took a 3-1 lead heading into the final 40 minutes.
Second period
Matthew Ward got the Broncos to within a goal at 3-2 just 1:13 into the second. He took the puck from beside the net outwaited Ross and beat him with a backhand.
Smith scored his second of the season to restore the Pats’ two-goal advantage at 4-2 at 3:18. He finished off of a nice pass from Bedard who did all of the work. Bedard took the shot grabbed his rebound and passed it to a wide-open Smith who had an easy tap in.
Show that puck with pride! Easton Armstrong’s first in @TheWHL #JoinTheRegiment pic.twitter.com/ny2S9pbylP
— Regina Pats (@WHLPats) March 30, 2021
Easton Armstrong added to the Pats lead as he scored his first career goal to give the Pats a 5-2 advantage. Sloan Stanick’s shot bounced off the goaltender and it went off Armstrong’s skate and in.
Just under three minutes later Bode Hagen scored to get the Broncos back to within a pair at 5-3. Ross lost track of the puck, Hagen grabbed it and put it past the sprawled out Pat goaltender.
Less than four minutes later Bedard scored his seventh goal of the season to give the Pats a 6-3 lead. He stole the puck went in on a breakaway and scored on a nice wrister glove side past the Bronco goalie.
With 78 seconds left in the frame, the Broncos scored. Ex-Pat Owen Williams’ shot was deflected and somehow it managed to beat the Pat netminder. The powerplay goal made it 6-4 for the Pats.
With 0.6 seconds left in the period, Stanick scored his first of the season to make it 7-4. In a mad scramble, the puck got sent out front and he made no doubt about it as the buzzer sounded.
The Pats led 7-4 and 29-25 on the shot clock after 40 minutes.
Third period
The Pats never looked back in the third period as they added two more to their tally.
Denomie scored his second of the game on the powerplay at 5:35 of the third. He converted a “pass” from Bedard, who did much of the dirty work to make it 8-4.
Massier scored to make it 9-4 on a nice individual play. He was able to get behind the Bronco defense and put a backhand past Dyck.
The Pats had control for much of the third period and outshot the Broncos 11-4.
Roddy Ross picked up his first win of the season making 25 saves on 29 shots in the win. It was one of his best outings on the season. “We got some big saves for sure. That was the start right there. That gave us a lot of energy,” Struch said of Ross.
Patterings: Bedard now has points in all 9 games of his young WHL career. Bedard now has 17 points (7G, 10A) and is tied for third in the league in scoring. Denomie scored his 8th and 9th and is now tied for most goals in the league. The Pats swept the three-star awards with Bedard (1G, 3A), Smith (2G, 1A), and Kyle Walker (2A) getting the honors.
