Keith Hershmiller
2021-22 WHL Season, East Division, Eastern Division

Bedard scores 4 as Pats beat Warriors 7-6 in OT

Written by Kevin Shaw on

 

Connor Bedard celebrates one of his four goals in a 7-6 OT win over Moose Jaw (Keith Hershmiller)

Connor Bedard scored four times, including the overtime winner as the Regina Pats beat the Moose Jaw Warriors. 4,070 spectators witnessed Bedard cap off his fine performance with the winner with just 21.5 seconds left in the extra frame sealing the New Year’s Day Trans-Canada Clash.

Cole Dubinsky, Logan Nijhoff, and Drew Englot rounded out the scoring for the Pats. Six different players scored for the Warriors: Matthew Gallant, Jagger Firkus, Maximus Wanner, Majid Kaddoura, Tate Schofer, and Robert Baco sniped in the loss.

The Pats held five separate leads in which the Warriors came back each time. Regina had a 2-0 lead in the first period on a pair of shorthanded goals before the Warriors tied it up. The teams exchanged goals before Bedard’s overtime winner.

“I think any coach would be crazy to say that you know wish you would stay away for another two weeks,” Pats assistant coach Ken Schneider opined. “We obviously love to have Connor back in our lineup I was saying after the game not a bad way to come you scored eight goals in the last two games of hockey so yeah I mean he’s obviously really important to our team.”

“Any time you get a player of that caliber back,” Pats captain Nijhoff said of Bedard’s return. “It’s obviously going to help the team. Four goals [are] pretty special.”

First Period

Just 41 seconds into the first period, Stanislav Svozil was ejected after taking a five-minute major for interference.

The Pats capitalized on the Warrior powerplay when Nijhoff scored shorthanded as he fired the puck past Warrior goaltender Carl Tetachuk from the left circle. The goal was Nijhoff’s 13th of the season and his seventh straight with a marker at 3:35 of the first period.

Cole Dubinsky scores on Carl Tetachuk – January 1, 2022 (Keith Hershmiller)

Not to be outdone, just 19 seconds later Dubinsky stole the puck and went in on a breakaway on the Warrior netminder, his short-side shot beat Tetachuk to give the Pats a 2-0 lead at 3:54. The unassisted goal was Dubinsky’s 10th of the season.

Gallant pulled the Warriors to within one when he sniped his third of the season with just over five minutes left in the first period. His shot from the right circle beat Matthew Kieper to pull the Warriors within one goal at 2-1 at 14:54 of the opening period.

Regina carried a 2-1 lead into the first break and a 10-8 shot advantage.

Second Period

Firkus tied the game up with his 20th of the season. He ripped a great shot from the slot beating Kieper on the powerplay to make the game 2-2 at 4:58.

The Pats regained the lead when Bedard dangled through the Warrior defense and snapped home his 15th of the season top corner at 11:30 of the middle period.

Just 45 seconds later Wanner was able to take the puck in deep into the right corner before he made a nice move to the front of the net before tucking it past Kieper to tie the game at 3-3.

Just 29 seconds after Wanner scored to tie the game

Another quick strike goal as Bedard scored his second of the game and 16th of the season. Tanner Howe’s pass off the right boards made it to Bedard who made no mistake firing low past Tetachuk to give the Pats the 4-3 lead.

Exactly five minutes after Bedard gave the Pats a 4-3 lead, Kaddoura’s long distance point shot went bar down to tie the game. His first of the season at 17:44 tied it up at 4-4 heading into the second intermission.

The Pats outshot the Warriors 14-8 in the middle twenty and had a 24-16 lead through forty minutes.

Third Period

Drew Sim replaced Kieper in the Pat net to start the third period.

Just 1:55 into the third period, Bedard completed his first career hat-trick. He entered the Warrior zone and used the defender as a screen and ripped it top corner to give the Pats a 5-4 lead.

The Pats had control in the Warrior end, Schofer grabbed a loose puck and took it all the way down to the Regina zone where he got a shot off that beat Sim through the legs. Schofer’s first career goal tied the game up at 5-5 at 5:22 of the third period.

Regina took their fifth lead of the game when Englot notched his fifth of the campaign. Layton Feist’s shot was blocked and Englot ripped home the loose puck to give the Pats a 6-5 lead on the 5-on-3 powerplay at 13:03 of the third.

The Warriors kept coming back and yet again tied the game up. While shorthanded, Baco went in in a two-on-one and beat Sim glove side to make it 6-6. His fifth of the season at 14:38 tied the game at 6-6 to force overtime.

The Pats outshot the Warriors 21-6 in the third and 45-22 through sixty minutes.

In just the second time of the season, the first time at home, the Pats headed to the 3-on-3 overtime.

Overtime

Both teams exchanged scoring chanced in the extra frame, but Bedard was on a mission. His fourth of the game sealed the Pats’ 7-6 victory.

Nijhoff took the puck and circled in the Warrior zone and waited for a Pat line change in which the recipient was none other than Bedard who fired home his fourth of the game and second overtime winner of the season with just 21.5 seconds left in the overtime.

The Pats outshot the Warriors 5-3 in overtime and 50-25 overall.

“This isn’t the greatest game, to be honest with you for a coach,” Schneider said. “Really we got into a track meet and his coaches were talking at the end of the second period it appeared that it looked like it was just going to be whoever scored last would win. That’s actually how it turned out. It’s a bit frustrating that way because you’re kind of out of your structure and but there was a couple [of] goals and we probably like to have back, and a lot of times those goals start in the offensive zone where we turned pucks over and then create opportunities you know in there into the rink for them to come back up ice. So yeah we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, to clean some things up we’ve been trying to work hard at that sort of aspect of our game but today was not a game where we really followed that structure at all.”

Patterings… Warriors first-round 2021 pick Marek Howell picked up his first career point in his first WHL game… Kieper made 12 saves on 16 shots before being replaced… Sim made seven saves on nine shots to pick up his second win of the season… Despite allowing seven goals, Tetachuk made 43 saves, some of them in spectacular fashion in the loss… Bedard was given first-star honors (4G, OT winner)… Dubinsky was named second-star (1G, 1A)… Moose Jaw’s Schofer was third-star (first career goal)… Pats’ next action is Friday, January 7 when they travel to Saskatoon to take on the Blades.