Friday’s matinee had the Regina Pats face-off against the Saskatoon Blades for their second match-up of the season. Regina was looking to build upon Thursday’s 5-3 win over Prince Albert. The East’s top-ranked Blades on the other hand had only one blemish on their record, an OT loss to Winnipeg in their third game. They were looking for their fifth straight win.
In the first meeting between the two clubs, the Pats surrendered six goals in a 6-3 loss.
The Pats switched up starters for this game as Spencer Welke saw his first action in the Subway Hub. He was 1-0-1 in two appearances in 2019-20.
A fast start is something that the Pats were hoping for, but that was not the case.
Saskatoon scored three times before the Pats got on the board.
“I think we came out a little bit flat. We kind of got off our game plan early, which we need to address and work on moving forward,” said Pats’ captain Logan Nijhoff, who had a Gordie Howe hat-trick with a goal, an assist, and a fight. “I think it’s just the little details we need to touch up on. We’ve been in these games I think. We’re right there, we just need to stick to it and everyone needs to bring just a little bit more.”
Just 1:32 in, the Blades struck. Welke was unable to corral a dump-in in front of his goal and Blake Stevenson scored for the Blades.
Not the start the Pats wanted. The Blades made it 2-0 just 6:11 into the game. Brandon Lisowsky deflected a wrist shot up and past Welke.
Coming into the game, the Blades’ powerplay was 3-for-23. That stat did not matter as they scored on their first powerplay of the game.
Colton Dach gave the Blades a 3-0 lead at 11:31 of the first. His shot snuck through the defense and past Welke.
Pats 15-year-old phenom Connor Bedard continued his white-hot start as he scored to get the Pats back into the game. He broke in 1-on-2 and got a shot on Koen MacInnes. He split the defense and grabbed the rebound and ripped it glove side past the Blade goalie to make it 3-1.
Caiden Daley restored the Blades three-goal lead at 18:36 of the first. Aidan De La Gorgendiere’s wrist shot that appeared to be going wide went off of Daley and past a screened Welke to make it 4-1.
The Blades had most of the play in the first and outshot the Pats 14-7.
The Pats needed a good start in the second period to get things back in line and it started off fine.
Logan Nijhoff helped the Pats do just that. Just 59 seconds into the second, he snapped a drop pass from Zack Smith past the Blades goalie. The goal brought the Pats to within a pair at 4-2.
Carter Chorney made it 4-3 when he one-timed a pass past the Blade goalie. Nijhoff grabbed the puck from behind the net and fed it out front where Chorney converted.
Saskatoon quelled the Pats momentum at 11:15 when Dach spun around, put a backhand on the Pats goalie and the puck squeaked through. Dach’s second of the game gave the Blades a 5-3 lead.
Each team had some opportunities the rest of the way, but no one capitalized. The Blades outshot the Pats 16-13 in a very even second.
The ice tilted heavily in the third period as the Blades took control of the play. The Pats were under siege by the Blades to start the frame.
Chase Wouters restored the Blades three-goal lead at 6:34 when he walked in and wristed one past Welke. On their 11th shot of the period, the Blades went up 6-3. Oh, by the way, the Pats had no shots up to that point of the period. They finally recorded a shot around the 11:30 mark of the third.
Wouters increased the lead to 7-3 with his second of the game, scoring with a 4-on-3 powerplay goal at 14:55 of the third.
Instead of playing themselves back into the game, they played themselves out of it.
At 18:03 Evan Patrician was hauled down on a partial breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot. Welke stood his ground and Patrician missed the net with a backhand.
The Blades outshot the Pats 47-27 in the win to move o 7-0-1-0 which is a franchise-best start. De La Gorgendiere added four assists and the first star in the win.
In the end, Welke stopped 40 shots in the Pat net as the Pats fell to 2-4-2-0 on the season.
“I know that Spencer would like to have a couple of them back,” Struch said.
“We did have a lot of energy to come back and put ourselves in a position to climb in, get even, and maybe get ahead. We thought we played pretty well in the second,” he added after the Pats made it a 4-3 game in the second. Struch continued “We had a big high yesterday – a lot of firsts for a lot of the young guys, so there’s lots of excitement and that kind of stuff from yesterday, and then they come out today and it becomes a little bit difficult,” Regina head coach Dave Struch said.
“Those are experiences they have to go through. It’s not getting too high; it’s not getting too low over the course of wins and losses that you have to maintain as an individual.”
Patterings: Bedard’s first-period goal extended his point streak to eight games. He has collected at least a single point in every Pats’ contest and now has 13 points (6G, 7A). Rookie defenseman Parker Berge added his first career point with an assist on Bedard’s first-period marker. On Chorney’s second-period goal Layton Feist picked up his first career assist.
