The 102nd year of Regina Pats hockey begins Friday September 20th against the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors. The Pats return the opening night favour in Moose Jaw the next evening. The Pats and Warriors haven’t opened a season against one another since 2015-16, and before that, not since at least 1996-97. With the ICE moving to Winnipeg, Brandon now has a new closest team as Brandon was the most common season opening opponent for the Pats in the past.
Game three of the season sees the WHL Champion Prince Albert Raiders come to town on Friday September 27th.
The newly relocated Winnipeg ICE make their first trip to Regina Sunday September 29th. The Pats make their first visit to Wayne Fleming Arena in Winnipeg, Saturday November 9th.
The Pats come out of the Christmas break with a home and home against the Warriors on Friday December 27th in Moose Jaw, and the next night at the Brandt Centre.
The annual Agribition road trip is different this year as the Pats head to Swift Current and Brandon, then to Alberta and the rest of the Central Division with 4 games in 5 nights. This year they head west to visit the US division starting Saturday January 11th in Tri-Cities and ending the 5 game trip in Spokane on Saturday January 18th
The dreaded three games in three days, even with the reduced schedule they still happen and the Pats have four of them. Once during the central road trip in November, one is a home, road, road, one is a road, home, home and the last one is a 3 game home stand.
With Swift Current moving to the Central Division, the Pats will see them less this year, but not as few as the other opponents in the Central. The teams will see each other six times, with two home and homes, rather than the usual four times.
The BC division comes to the Brandt Centre this season. Vancouver is the first to come east on October 12th. Games against Kamloops and Kelowna are December 11th and 13th respectively. Prince George visits January 8th and Victoria January 31st
The schedule is heavy on Friday and Saturday nights as usual. 41 of the 68 games are on the prime evenings with an additional 11 on Sundays. That leaves 16 games during the week, 2 on Mondays, 5 Tuesdays and 9 on Wednesdays. The home schedule has 26 of 34 games on the weekend, only 8 are during the week.
The Pats will close out the season with another home and home with the Warriors. The Pats will host on Friday March 20th and Moose Jaw will host Saturday March 21st.
