Keith Hershmiller
Eastern Division

Bedard, Pats take out Hitmen

Written by Kevin Shaw on

 

The Regina Pats beat the Calgary Hitmen 4-1 before 4,150 fans at the Brandt Centre. Connor Bedard was a force much of the night and scored a pair of goals to lead the Pats to a crucial victory for the Queen City Kids. Neithan Salame scored the game-winner early in the second period and Cole Dubinsky rounded out the scoring for the Pats. Anton Yatyshin replied for the Hitmen.

Cole Dubinsky and the Regina Pats beat the Calgary Hitmen – March 12, 2022 (Keith Hershmiller)

“It’s awesome,” said Dubinsky on the two-win weekend. “These two games we came into this weekend, knowing we had to win, to keep our playoff chance alive and to earn that spot and we came here and we did just that.”

The win gives the Pats 48 points and a tie for ninth with the Hitmen, two points behind the eighth-place Raiders who have 50, and the seventh-place Hurricanes at 52. The Pats have two games at hand on both teams they are chasing and three at hand on the Hitmen.

“This weekend was the weekend which determines whether we have a chance to make the playoffs or not,” said Pats assistant coach Ken Schneider. “I can’t express it any more than it was a huge win tonight. I think what I really liked about tonight was how our entire team bought into our system and what we wanted to do in terms of the structure of our game.”

The Pats took control of the game early and limited the Hitmen to very few opportunities in the opening period,

The Pats took a 1-0 lead 8:50 into the first when Bedard sniped his first of the game (36th of the season) when he corralled a pass from Parker Berge and ripped home a shot from the dot to the right of Brayden Peters. Tanner Howe picked up the secondary assist on the opening goal.

The goal gave Bedard 100 career points in his 62nd game, it also extended his point streak to 17 games and his second goal gave him 35 points (17G-18A) in those games. It was one year to the day that the 2020-21 WHL East Division Hub opened and Bedard scored twice in his first career game.

“To look back and think that it’s been a year already is pretty crazy obviously,” said Bedard on the one-year anniversary of his debut. “I think Neithan [Salame] can talk about just how fast it goes and it’s definitely pretty cool to kind of wake up and see that was a year ago, so to get a win in on the same day was pretty cool.”

“It’s definitely a pretty cool coincidence,” Bedard said on picking up his 100th career point. “I think, for it to be exactly [one year]. It was just kind of random and it’s exciting it all worked out that way.”

Regina kept the pressure on and outshot Calgary 14-5 through twenty minutes and held a 1-0 advantage heading into the first intermission.

Early in the second period the Pats broke in with numbers but were thwarted by the Hitmen. Salame followed up the play, found the puck, and chipped the puck past Peters to give the Pats the ever-important two-goal lead at 2-0 just 45 seconds into the middle period. Dubinsky picked up the assist on Salame’s second of the season.

Calgary Hitmen score against the Regina Pats – March 12, 2022 (Keith Hershmiller)

The Hitmen got on the board just before the halfway mark of the second period when Yatyshin’s shot beat a screened Drew Sim to cut the Pats lead to one at 2-1. Tyson Galloway and Oliver Tulk assisted on Yatsyshin’s fourth goal of the season.

Things were looking like it would head to the second intermission break up 2-1 but the Pats were awarded a late powerplay and this happened…

With 6.2 seconds left in the second period, Bedard fired home his second of the game (37th of the season) to give the Pats a 3-1 lead heading into the second intermission. Evans got a pass to Bedard who looked to shoot but had no lane, he then took the puck to his right and let a shot go from the point which beat a screened Peters. Howe picked up the other assist.

The Pats had a 12-7 advantage on the shot clock in the second and 26-12 overall.

 

Dubinsky added to the Pats lead 5:31 into the third period when he sniped his 15th goal of the season. Salame started the play in the defensive zone where he threw the puck off the glass that got to Dubinsky who took the puck with speed and broke in alone on Peters and wired a shot past the Hitmen goaltender to give the Pats a 4-1 lead.

The Pats gave the Hitmen three straight powerplays in the third period, including a 5-on-3 for over a minute, but their penalty kill went perfect killing all three opportunities.

The shots were a bit closer in the third period with the Pats taking them 10-8 and a 36-20 advantage in the game.

Regina Pats celebrate a win over the Calgary Hitmen – March 12, 2022 (Keith Hershmiller)

“I’m just proud of everyone on our team,” said Dubinsky. “And it just feels so good. I really love winning. That’s what it all comes down to and it was just awesome.”

“And so you know, we’re pretty stingy,” Schneider said. “If you’re only giving up seven, five shots in a period, you’re really defending [well], you’re really smothering them. Of course in all fairness to [Calgary], they’re playing their fourth game in five nights, and we have to take advantage of that.”

Even though he hit the 100 point mark, Bedard had this to say: “The [win] is the most important thing obviously, you know, not really worried about that milestone… you’re worried about those two points. So it was definitely a good night.”

Sim was strong in net stopping 19 of 20 Hitmen shots to pick up his fifth win of the season. Peters was again strong in net for Calgary as he stopped 32 shots in the loss.

The Pats went 1-for-4 on the powerplay while the Hitmen went 0-for-3.

Patterings: The Hitmen were without 20-goal man Sean Tschigerl who was injured on Friday night…The Pats swept the three-star awards with Bedard, Dubinsky, and Sim picking up the honors…The Pats’ next action is Tuesday when they head on the road to play the Medicine Hat Tigers and Lethbridge Hurricanes on Tuesday and Wednesday.