Ed Fonger

Poulter stymies Pats

The Pats and Broncos renewed their rivalry for the first time this season, now as conference foes instead of division foes. The game had been postponed from Nov 9th until Tuesday evening. Isaac Poulter stole the show in the third period, stopping 48-of-49 Regina shots on the way to a 2-1 Swift Current win.

“We threw everything we had at the net and Poulter was really good and it’s not the first time he’s done it to us.” Said Pats head coach Dave Struch after the game.

Poulter was named first star of the game. His last game against Regina was a 33-save shutout on March 13th of last season.

Ethan Regnier opened the scoring for the Broncos in the first period as he was able to get behind a Pat defender and deposit a rebound from a Sergei Alkhimov wrap around attempt.

Former Pat Sergei Alkhimov
(Photo – Keith Hershmiller)

The Pats scored the lone goal of the second when Zack Smith tipped home a Nikita Sedov point shot. Smith now has two goals in six games this season.

The third period also saw only one goal scored. Ex-Pat Sergei Alkhimov spun and put a shot towards the net and it sneaked through everyone and into the back of the net. Swift Current only recorded three shots on net in the period, as most of the play was in their end. Poulter held the fort for the victory.

Newest Pat Carson Denomie, who had five shots on net in the game, said afterwards “I think overall we out played them and I think we got gutted two points tonight”

Carson Denomie
(Photo – reginapats.com)

Coach Struch was happy with the game as a whole saying “These are the growing pains that you go through. You just have to stick with it, if you weren’t getting opportunities, and you weren’t out working the opposition, then you’d have question marks. But we out worked them tonight. We felt that we out chanced them for sure, we out shot them, we out faced off them. There’s a lot of things that we could put a check mark in the box on. As much as we want to tip our hat to their goalie we want to tip our hat to our players for the effort they put in.”

Pats Stats

Pats goalie Max Paddock stopped 26 of 28 shots

Both teams were unable to convert on the power play. Swift Current had two chances, Regina, six.

With a goal and an assist Ethan Regnier now leads the Broncos in scoring.

In his second game back versus the Pats, Sergei Alkhimov collected a goal and an assist for the second star of the game. In his first game, as a member of the Vancouver Giants, he was held pointless.

The Pats have not scored a power play goal in the last two games on 10 attempts. The power play is a league worst 10.4%.

The Pats are right back at it Wednesday evening versus Calgary. They then are on the road for a season high seven straight games.