Playing in their seventh straight game on home ice, the Regina Pats coughed up a trio of two-goal leads in a 6-4 loss to the Brandon Wheat Kings. 3,921 spectators watched as the Pats had 2-0, 3-1, and 4-2 leads snuffed out by the Wheat Kings with TSN in the building.
The game was originally to be the Prince Albert Raiders visiting the Queen City, but injuries and COVID-19 Protocols have shuttered the Raiders as they are unable to ice a competitive team. So here came the Wheat Kings and with three second-period powerplay goals in their pockets were able to claw back and take the Friday night affair.
Overage defenseman Vincent Iorio led the way for the Wheat Kings with a career night scoring twice and assisting on three others for five points.
Borya Valis scored twice in the first period to give the Pats a 2-0 lead with his sixth and seventh of the season at 1:14 and 12:29 of the first period.
“The first period went smoothly, but then as the game went on, we started taking not the smartest penalties and that killed our game,” Valis said. “They capitalized on their power plays and they’re a really good team when its 5-on-4.”
Iorio connected on the powerplay 4:02 into the second period to cut the Pats lead to 2-1. Neithan Salame restored the Pats’ two-goal lead as he scored his first goal as a Pat and first of the season and gave the Pats a 3-1 lead just 18 seconds later at 4:20 of the second period.
“It was definitely a change, seeing the guys out there,” said the overage Salame, who had 32 points (7G-25A) in 149 games with the Wheat Kings prior to his acquisition by Regina on January 10. “I’ve got some buddies on that team. I was obviously there a long time. I thought it was fun playing against them. They’re a good team and they capitalized on our mistakes tonight, so give credit to them.”
Iorio scored his second goal of the game and second on the powerplay to cut the Pats lead back to a single at 9:31 of the middle stanza to make it 3-2. Easton Armstrong notched his third goal of the season at 15:34 of the second period to give the Pats their third two-goal lead of the game at 4-2.
The Wheat Kings would not go away and Trae Johnson scored his first career marker with a highlight-reel goal with just over a minute left in the second period to make it 4-3. Nate Danielson scored his 10th of the season with just 5.8 seconds left in the second to tie the game at 4-4 heading into the second intermission.
“At the end of the period, they switched up,” Paddock said of Brandon’s adjustments. “They backed off a little bit and had four guys back. We couldn’t make the plays that we were making earlier because of their guys being back, so we didn’t (dump) it in and it ended up costing us.”
Danielson then scored his 11th of the season (and eventual game-winner) just 53 seconds into the third period to give the visiting Wheat Kings their first lead of the game at 5-4. Landon Roberts connected with his sixth of the season into an empty net with 28.9 seconds left to seal the contest.
The Wheat Kings went three-for-five on the power play while the Pats went one-for-two.
The Pats outshot the Wheat Kings 27-23 in the game.
Ethan Kruger stopped 23 of 27 Pats shots to pick up his 13th win of the season for the Wheat Kings. Matthew Kieper allowed five goals on 22 shots in the loss.
Patterings: Connor Bedard had a pair of assists in the game for the Pats and has 23 points (10G-13A) in his nine-game point streak. Iorio earned first-star honors with his five-point performance… Stanislav Svozil had four assists for the Pats garnering him the second star of the game… Danielson got the third-star nod with his pair of markers. The Pats’ next action is Saturday when they visit Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw, it will be their first road game since December 18th.