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

Pats beat Raiders 5-2 on Teddy Bear Toss Night

Written by Kevin Shaw on

 

Five different players scored as the Regina Pats beat the Prince Albert Raiders 5-2 before an announced 3,564. Tanner Howe opened the scoring for the Pats which was the signal for the fans to throw their teddy bears onto the ice. It had been over two years since the Pats hosted a Teddy Bear Toss Night.  Austin Pratt scored to bring the teddy bears down in a 3-2 win over the Red Deer Rebels on December 7, 2019. Layton Feist, Zane Rowan, Logan Nijhoff, and Cole Carrier rounded out the scoring for the Pats. Carson Latimer had both tallies for the Raiders.

Regina Pats celebrate their Teddy Bear Toss – December 10, 2021 (Keith Hershmiller)

The Pats’ powerplay proved to be lethal on the night going 3-for-7.

“The power play was real good,” Pats head coach and general manager John Paddock said. “Got us off to a good start and two more goals after that. I thought that we played really hard. Simplified a little bit in the third period compared to the second and the kids really sacrificed in the third period with penalties.”

First Period

The Pats opened the scoring on the powerplay at 6:37 of the opening period. Ryker Evans passed the puck to Cole Dubinsky who was at the left point. Dubinsky took the puck to the top of the circle and fed a cross-ice pass to Howe who one-timed the puck past Tikhon Chaika to give the Pats a 1-0 lead and the teddy bears were sent flying. The goal extended Howe’s point streak to 11 games.

A few fast facts about Howe’s Teddy Bear goal: He is the youngest player to score the goal… his goal is the sixth fastest scored in the 25 years the Pats have had the Teddy Bear game… It was just the fourth goal scored while on the powerplay.

“To see all the teddy bears come down was a pretty cool moment,” Howe said of the goal.

“It’s an exciting thing for the fans and it’s obviously for a great cause,” Paddock said of the Teddy Bear Night. “Those are the two key things. I think the players get a little bit more — don’t want to say pumped up, but it’s exciting for the players to score. When Pavel Padakin was here, he scored three in a row, a couple in Calgary and one for us. So it has a little bit of excitement to it.”

The Pats doubled their lead at 14:04 of the first period. Feist buried a rebound past the Raider goaltender. Stanislav Svozil ripped a point shot on the Raider net and Chaika made the initial save and Feist was there to pot his first of the season and sixth career marker.

The Pats outshot the Raiders 12-8 in the opening twenty minutes while carrying a 2-0 lead into the break.

Second Period

Prince Albert struck just 30 seconds into the second period to cut the Pats lead in half. Nolan Allen fired a point shot that hit Latimer in the body and the puck slowly trickled past the left side of Matthew Kieper. Latimer’s eighth of the season made the score 2-1

Just over two minutes later Rowan buried his second of the season to restore the Pats’ two-goal lead at 2:36 of the period. Rowan grabbed the puck deep in the Raider zone along the boards, took the puck, and fired a tough angle shot that beat Chaika low to make it 3-1.

The Pats struck again on the powerplay when Nijhoff scored his eighth of the season less than three minutes later to make the score 4-1 at 5:26. Alex Geci threw a shot on the net which bounced around in the Raider crease and Nijhoff batted it into the Raider cage.

Before the second was over, Latimer scored his second of the game to cut the Pats lead to two. Latimer carried the puck behind the Pats net and centered the puck which went in off Cole Carrier’s stick and past Kieper. Latimer’s ninth of the season at 17:35 made the score 4-2 heading into the second intermission.

The Raiders outshot the Pats 13-7 in the period and now led 21-19 in the game.

Third Period

After successfully killing off a pair of penalties in the late stages of the third period, Carrier sealed the game with his 10th goal of the season into an empty net. With little time left on the clock, Evans flipped the puck out of the Pats zone which gave Carrier time to pick up the loose puck and with speed deposited it into the wide-open Raider cage. With 6.9 seconds left in the game, the Pats sealed the 5-2 win.

The Pats outshot the Raiders 7-6 in the third. The Raiders led on the shot clock 27-26 at the end of 60 minutes.

Regina Pats dive into teddy bears collected in the Club’s 25th Teddy Bear Toss game. December 10, 2021. (Keith Hershmiller)

“It’s extremely special,” Pats captain Nijhoff said of the Teddy Bear Toss. “I’ve been lucky enough to be able to deliver teddy bears to kids in hospitals and they greatly appreciate it. So, I want to thank all the fans that came out and threw teddy bears.”

“To get Logan and Dubinsky back,” Paddock added. “That’s a trade-off sort of for Connor leaving the lineup. Those are two veteran players that are two of our top four or five forwards on our team…they’re important guys and when we get all our guys back, we should be a pretty decent team.”

Patterings… It was the first game for the Pats without Connor Bedard, who was at Team Canada’s World Junior tryout camp… Nijhoff and Dubinsky were welcomed back to the lineup after missing time… Nijhoff picked up first star honors with two points (1G, 1A)… Howe was named the second star with his Teddy Bear marker… Svozil had two assists and was named the third star. The Pats’ next matchup is Saturday, December 11 when they travel to Brandon.