Keith Hershmiller
Eastern Division

Hurricanes storm back to beat Pats in OT

Written by Kevin Shaw on

 

In a pivotal game for both the Regina Pats and the Lethbridge Hurricanes, the Hurricanes erased a 4-2 third-period deficit to pull off a 5-4 overtime win.

Justin Hall scored 1:50 into the extra frame to seal the victory for the Hurricanes who moved to 23-25-2-1 on the season which is good for 49 points. Despite picking up a point, the loss was costly for the Pats who are in a chase for the seventh and eighth playoff spot. The Pats now have a 20-27-3-1 record which gives them 44 points on the season and even with the point, the Pats fell to last place in the East Division.

Jett Jones scored twice, while Corson Hopwo and Ty Nash joined Hall with the Hurricanes goals. Connor Bedard, Tanner Howe, Tye Spencer, and Braxton Whitehead replied for the Pats.

Many of the 4,049 fans in attendance booed as the referees skated off the ice after Hall’s game-winner.

Special teams were the Pats undoing in the game as they allowed three powerplay goals, including the overtime goal.

Regina Pats score against the Lethbridge Hurricanes – March 5, 2022 (Keith Hershmiller)

“I thought 5-on-5 we carried the play for most of the time.” Pats assistant coach Brad Herauf said. “I thought a lot of those power plays we were working for them — we got the power plays through our work, but as soon as we got the power play, we stopped working. They completely out-willed us on their penalty kill. They were blocking shots, they were hungrier than us. We had guys standing around watching, thinking it was going to be an easy game because of 5-on-5 was going our way.”

The Pats opened the scoring when Spencer got the puck to Bryan Thomson’s left fired a pass over to Bedard who ripped home his 34th of the season just 3:42 into the opening period giving the Pats a 1-0 lead.

Whitehead doubled the Pats lead when he tipped home a Luke Bateman point shot to top-shelf past the Hurricane netminder. His sixth of the season put the Pats up 2-0 at 13:40 of the first.

The Pats had a 2-0 lead heading into the first break and dominated on the shot clock 19-8 through 20 minutes.

Another deflection goal for the Pats by Spencer gave the Pats a 3-0 lead 4:37 into the middle stanza. He tipped home a Layton Feist shot past Thomson.

Do you know how they say that a three-goal lead is the worst in sports? Tonight it was.

Hopwo scored his 10th of the season to get the Hurricanes on the board less than three minutes later. The powerplay goal cut the lead to 3-1 at 7:34 of the second period as he ripped home a shot past Drew Sim.

Less than five minutes later the Hurricanes pulled to within one when Nash scored his 17th of the season at 12:07. His long-distance from high in the slot came while on a delayed penalty to the Pats.

The Pats doubled their lead to 4-2 with less than two minutes left in the second. Bedard hit Howe with a pass and scored his 23rd of the season with a backhand shot that he roofed past Thomson at 18:12.

The Pats carried a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes and stayed up on the shot clock at 28-16.

Lethbridge Hurricanes score on the Regina Pats – March 5, 2022 (Keith Hershmiller)

The proverbial wheels came off for the Pats as the Hurricanes pulled back to within a tally when Jones scored on the powerplay. He converted his 15th of the season on a two-on-one goal where he finished off a pass from Yegor Klavdiev just 1:13 into the third period to make it 4-3.

While playing 4-on-4 and with the Hurricanes net empty, Jones completed a tic-tac-toe play on a backdoor pass to tie the game up at 4-4 with hist 38.6 seconds left in the game to send the game into overtime.

Lethbridge outshot Regina 9-6 in the third period, but the Pats led 34-25 after 60 minutes.

Of to overtime…

With a very questionable call in overtime, the Hurricanes were awarded a man advantage and it proved costly.

Hall completed the Hurricanes comeback with a powerplay goal 1:50 into the extra frame when he tipped home a pass past Sim to seal the 5-4 victory.

“We completely took our foot off the pedal and that hurt us,” Herauf said. “I just think it’s karma. We didn’t deserve it. Flat out. They were outworking us. Yeah we had chances, yeah we had a couple [of] good looks, but it’s not going to go in when it’s a bad shot here, a ricochet there, we have to work for those opportunities, and tonight we were outworked.”

“Obviously, it’s pretty disappointing,” Whitehead said. “I think that we had a good first period, the second period we let up a bit. Then the third period, the penalties kinda killed us so moving forward, we [have] just gotta stay out of the box at the end of the game and play our game like we did in the first period today.”

Sim stopped 22 of 27 shots he faced, while Thomson made 31 saves in the win.

“I thought we played a pretty good first period,” said Pats alternate captain Ryker Evans. “We were playing our style of game, we were wearing them down, we were getting chances. Then once we started getting powerplays, we started getting lackadaisical and we weren’t bringing that same presence that we had in the first period. We kinda gave up on the game there and let them back into it.”

The Pats went 0-for-7 on the powerplay while the Hurricanes went 3-for-5.

Patterings: Cole Dubinsky and Borya Valis returned to the Pats lineup…Bedard extended his point streak to 15 games (14G-17A)…Hall, Jones, and Spencer were named the three stars…the Pats’ next action is Friday, March 11 when they host the same Hurricanes at the Brandt Centre.