The Winnipeg ICE (12-4-0-0) “hosted” the Regina Pats (6-7-2-1) in the lone game at the Subway WHL Hub at the Brandt Centre. Both teams came in on streaks, Winnipeg was riding a five-game winning streak. The Pats had a streak of their own with points in three-straight (2-0-0-1).
The teams went with their 20-year-old veterans between the pipes. Carl Stankowski for the ICE and WHL goalie of the week Roddy Ross for the Pats.
The ICE had won the previous meetings with a combined 13-5 score. On March 23, the ICE dropped the Pats 8-3 and on April 3 the ICE prevailed 5-2.
In the first game post-Connor Bedard, the Pats offense sputtered. The Pats played well but had a hard time mustering offense and despite a few quality opportunities only found the back of the net once in a 3-1 loss to the ICE.
“Absolutely, we talked about it last time,” Pats’ head coach Dave Struch said about the team missing Bedard. “Without having Connor here, it’s such a great opportunity for other guys. Zack Smith steps in there and he played really good, intense, hard, he competed hard. Guys like Braxton Whitehead, even (Easton) Armstrong, those guys play more minutes, not that they are going to take over and do what Connor does, but just opportunities. We got Cole Carrier back tonight… Without Connor, these guys are going to get to eat up some minutes here that Connor played.”
“We talked about creating offense and we had the puck a lot more tonight than we have in the past against this team, and it was because of our defensive game,” Struch said of the game.
“We had some difficulty but overall, I felt that we played a good defensive game, and it starts with our goalie (Ross), our goalie was fantastic for us tonight.”
Here are how things went…
Early fisticuffs in this one. Winnipeg’s Brandt Young dropped the mitts with Regina’s Easton Armstrong three minutes in. The two 17-year-olds tried to set the tone early for their respective clubs.
Just over five minutes in Karter Prosofsky hit Conor Geekie with a stretch pass and was sprung on a breakaway. Geekie’s wrister beat Ross for his sixth career goal, that tally gave the ICE a 1-0 lead at 5:09.
Logan Nijhoff tied the game on the powerplay when he converted a Zack Smith pass from below the goal line. His seventh of the season made it 1-1 at the 16:08 mark. Ryker Evans picked up the secondary assist.
The captain ties it up! Logan Nijhoff on the PP dish from Smith.
Another $100 for @BBBSRegina from PTI.#JoinTheRegiment #SubwayWHLHub pic.twitter.com/lQvWTYCFo7
— Regina Pats (@WHLPats) April 13, 2021
The ICE scored a powerplay goal of their own just over a minute later. Connor McClennon restored the ICE one-goal lead when he corralled a loose puck in a scramble in front of the Pats net. His ninth goal in the Hub was assisted by Owen Pederson and Benjamin Zloty to make it 2-1 at 17:27 of the period. The goal was McClennon’s 100th career point.
In an entertaining first twenty minutes, the ICE outshot the Pats 10-6.
The Pats came out fast in the second period, but it was short-lived. The ICE took over most of the play and then added to their lead.
McClennon sniped his second of the game and 10th of the season. He ripped a one-timer past the Pats goaltender’s glove. Peyton Krebs fed a nice pass to McClennon on an ICE rush to give the Ice a two-goal advantage. Mike Ladyman picked up the second assist on the 3-1 goal at 6:09.
The shot clock started showing some separation as the ICE outshot the Pats 13-8 in the second period.
The Pats needed to get some offense going in the third to erase the two-goal lead.
Despite getting a few more chances in the latter half of the third period, the Pats could not get any closer.
The ICE outshot the Pats 10-9 in the third period and held on for the 3-1 win.
“When we weather the storm like we had to a couple of times,” Struch said. “We managed the puck better than we have in the past, we didn’t turn the puck over as much. We did turn it over, but not as much and it gave us some offensive looks that we didn’t capitalize on.”
“You have to work for it… Hopefully, these guys can realize that getting there is half the battle, but bearing down is the second half to finish it off.”
Patterings: Regina went 1-for-1 on the powerplay while Winnipeg connected once on five opportunities. McClennon (2G), Geekie (1G), and Evans (1A) were the games’ three-stars. Evans extended his point streak to six games. Ross made 30 saves in goal for the Pats. The Pats are back at it tomorrow night when they host the Prince Albert Raiders at 8 p.m.
