(Photo: Keith Hershmiller)
Eastern Division, Game Recap

Calvert leads Warriors past Pats

Written by Chris Clark on

 

Atley Calvert’s natural hat-trick was too much for the Pats on Saturday night. Calvert collected his three goals in a span of 14:11 of game time.

“We just weren’t good enough.” said Pats Head Coach John Paddock post game. “Give Moose Jaw lots of credit for having something to do with that, but we just needed to be better than we were.”

Coming into the game, the Pats were on a 5 game losing streak on the road. The team is 5-4-0-1 in their last ten games. Starting goalie Drew Sim is 2-0 versus Moose Jaw this season.

Meanwhile, Moose Jaw was on a 5 game win streak, with wins over the top two teams in the Eastern Conference, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. The Warriors are 7-2-1 in their last ten games. Starting goalie Carl Tetachuk is 6-2-2 versus the Pats in his career.

In the last meeting, the Pats won easily 7-1, a rare blowout win in the season series as the other 6 games were either one or two-goal games.

Moose Jaw controlled most of the first period, outshooting the Pats 11 to seven in the first, but the Pats collected most of those late in the period.

Jacob Brook took a slashing penalty on a back-check, and on the ensuing power-play, Ryder Korzack scored his 16th of the season at 6:11 of the first period. Jagger Firkus and Brayden Yager picked up the assists.

The Pats tie up the game with a goal 3:53 into the second period. Carl Tetachuk mishandled a Cole Dubinsky shot and Tye Spencer banged home the loose puck, to collect his first goal as a Pat, fourth of the season.

“I thought tonight might have been the game where he showed the most creativity” said Paddock of Tye Spencer. “He’s fitting into a new into a new team, but he’s exactly what we thought he is and his days as he goes on are going to be better and better.”

It was all Warriors from that point on as Atley Calvert restored the Warriors lead at the 10:39 mark of the second period with a tip-in on a Max Wanner point shot.

Calvert then picked up his second of the game on an odd-man rush, he made no mistake with a shot from the slot that found the top corner over Sim’s right shoulder.

The Pats caught a break as Moose Jaw scored right at the end of the period, but after video review, it was determined that the puck entered the net after the buzzer had sounded.

At 4:50 of the third Calvert picks up the hat-trick on a two-on-one, where he kept the puck and sniped a shot over Sim’s glove.

At the midpoint of the period a move of desperation by the Pats, as they pulled the goalie when Warriors Captain Daemon Hunt took a two-minute kneeing penalty. The Pats were unsuccessful on the first part of the power-play, Moose Jaw then took another minor penalty setting up a 6-on-3 situation, but the Pats could not convert. Sim returned to the net after the penalties expired. The Pats were unable to generate many high-quality scoring chances on the power play.

“I don’t think we did a good enough job. Nobody wants to stand in front of the goalie.” Paddock said on the power play.”We’re really missing Zack Stringer, who’s probably the best net-front guy in the league.” Stringer has missed the past three games.

On the decision to pull the goalie mid-period Paddock commented “we were hoping to get a goal, clearly that’s the reason we pull (the goalie). Without question, it was the right time to do it.”

Pats Stats

Moose Jaw swept the three stars, Calvert, first, Tetachuk, second & Denton Mateychuk, third, were recognized.

The Pats were 0-for-4 on the power-play, they had scored a power-play goal in five straight contests.

The Warriors were 1-for-3.

Connor Bedard’s nine-game point streak came to an end as he was kept off the score sheet.

Regina drops to 5-10 on the road

The Pats led the shot clock 34-28, and face-offs won 31-30

Regina’s next scheduled game is Wednesday, Feb 2nd, as they entertain the Saskatoon Blades.