Sloan Stanick and Cole Carrier each picked up three points to lead the Regina Pats to a 5-2 win over the visiting Prince Albert Raiders. The home opener was televised nationally by CBC and viewed by 4,292 onlookers at Regina’s Brandt Centre. With the win, the Pats moved to 2-0-0-0 on the early WHL season.
Saturday’s home opener just so happened to be the 44th anniversary of the first regular-season contest played at the Brandt Centre (originally called the Agridome).
October 2, 1977
The #ReginaPats beat the #SaskatoonBlades 8-4.
This game was the first official game in the brand new Agridome.
Clark Bacala (2), Garry Slezak, Scott Kolewaski, Gerry Minor, Ron Parent, Gerry Galloway & Kevin Krook scored the Pats goals. pic.twitter.com/RCFUnWBVPN
— Kevin Shaw (@theblueliner) October 2, 2021
The Pats opened their season Friday, with a 3-1 win in Prince Albert on WHL’s opening night. Connor Bedard led the charge with a pair of markers.
18-year-old Stanick, a third-year Pat, picked up the first two-goal and three-point game of his WHL career. Coming into the contest, Stanick had registered three goals to go along with seven assists in 74 career games.
Carrier had a goal and two assists in Saturday’s opener which exceeded his 2020-21 point total. In 18 games at the East Division Hub, Carrier had one goal and one assist while suiting up for 18 games.
Newcomers Luke Bateman, Zack Stringer, Zane Rowan, and Stanislav Svozil made their Brandt Centre debuts in the opener.
The Pats wore their new red third jersey’s which honours the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. The new duds were unveiled on September 28th.
This morning, we unveiled our new third jersey, which features a colourful version of a WWI era PPCLI military badge & diagonal stripe on the front & a Canadian military chevron on both sleeves.
DETAILS–> https://t.co/dWk7cMxn0w#MarchOn pic.twitter.com/pUNgl8wN8y
— Regina Pats (@WHLPats) September 28, 2021
First Period
The Pats opened the scoring on the PP as Sloan Stanick deposited Drew Englot’s rebound past Carter Serhyenko. Cole Carrier picked up the other helper on Stanick’s first of the season that gave the Pats a 1-0 lead at 5:42 of the opening frame.
Fresh off his NHL camp with San Jose, Ozzy Weisblatt made his presence known. His powerplay marker at 12:24 of the first period tied the game at 1-1. Local product Landon Kosior picked up the lone assist.
The Pats outshot the Raiders 10-7 after the first period.
Second Period
Carrier restored the Pats one-goal lead when his backhand beat Serhyenko. The goal gave the Pats a 2-1 lead at 7:54. Zack Smith and Stanick registered the assists on Carrier’s first goal of the season.
The Raiders did not register a shot until almost halfway through the second.
At 13:06 of the middle twenty, Reece Vitelli outwaited Matthew Kieper and fired a shot glove side past the Pats netminder. Vitelli’s unassisted marker tied the game at 2-2.
Just a minute and 16 seconds later, Stanick ripped home a one-time pass from Stanislav Svozil to restore the Pats one-goal lead. Stanick’s second of the game (and season) gave the Pats a 3-2 lead. Carrier picked up his third point of the contest on the goal at 14:22.
The Pats had a solid 13-7 shots advantage in the middle twenty and a 23-14 shot on goal lead after forty minutes.
Third Period
The Pats upped their lead when Ryker Evans’ point shot hit Zack Stringer and went past Serhyenko to give the Pats their first two-goal lead of the contest. Stringer’s first goal with the Pats was a powerplay goal 37 seconds into the third. The Pats’ second powerplay goal of the game gave them a 4-2 lead. Cole Dubinsky picked up the secondary assist.
16-year-old phenom Bedard would not be denied in this game. His beautiful goal at 13:30 of the third period gave the Pats a three-goal cushion at 5-2. Dubinsky and Stringer picked up the assists on the Pats’ fifth marker in the game.
The Pats outshot the Raiders 11-7 in the third period and 34-21 overall.
Patterings… The Pats swept the three stars in the game. Carrier (first), Stanick (second) and Svozil (third). Regina went 2-for-4 on the powerplay while killing 6-of-7 penalties. Dubinsky had a pair of assists in his season debut for the Pats. Kieper made 19 saves in the Regina goal, while he moved to 2-0-0-0 on the season. Serhyenko made 29 stops in the loss. The Pats next action is Wednesday, October 6 when they travel to Winnipeg to play the ICE. They then travel to Moose Jaw on Friday, October 8. The next home game is Sunday, October 10 against the Brandon Wheat Kings with a 4:00 faceoff.
