WHL Regina Pats

Harding Makes It

Published on December 16, 2003 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Regina Pats News Release


The Regina Pats (13-19-2-2) entertain the Kelowna Rockets (25-10-2) tonight at 7:00 in the Agridome. The biggest news with the Pats today is that MVP goaltender Josh Harding made Canada's World Junior Team final roster, which was announced this morning in Kitchener. Harding and Marc-Andre Fleury will make up Canada's goaltending tandem for the WJHC which open Boxing Day in Finland. It's official, Harding is the CHL's top under-20 goaltender. Fleury has spent the first half of the season with the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pats are 0-1 since Harding left for World Juniors. They lost 6-3 to Vancouver Saturday night in the 'Dome with Rick Rypien scoring twice and Jordan McGillvary potting the other. Brandon Heatherington and Jesse Decket combined to make 28 saves in the loss as the team went 0/7 on the powerplay and 6/9 on the penalty-kill. 4,041 attended the game. Tonight is the Pats' final home game before Christmas.

PATS NOTES: The Pats are 9-4-0-1 at home and 3-6-1 in their past 10 games. Rypien is now the team's leading scorer (11-14-25) followed by Dan Waschuk (12-12-24) and Lance Morrison (6-16-22). Chris Schlenker leads the team in PM with 103 and Waschuk leads in plus/minus at +2.

ROCKETS NOTES: The Rockets are 14-5-1 on the road and 8-2-0 in their past 10, which includes a 3-game winning streak coming into tonight. Sunday night they won 5-2 at Brandon with Keller scoring twice and singles came from Paddock, Bodie and Comeau. Kelly Guard made 20 saves as the team went 1/6 on the PP and 5/6 on the PK. Justin Keller is their leading scorer (15-12-27) followed by Paddock (12-11-23) and Josh Gorges (4-18-22). Simon Ferguson leads the team with 87 PM's and Gorges leads the squad with a +15. The Rockets are at Saskatoon tomorrow. The Rockets will host the 2004 Memorial Cup in May.

SPECIAL TEAMS: The Pats are 15th in the league in both departments (15.3% PP and 79.4% PK)......The Rockets have the 14th PP (15.4%) and the 1st PK (89.7%).

QUOTABLE: "Our best player's out of the lineup now, but that's the case with a lot of other teams this time of year with World Juniors. Not just one player on our team's going to replace Josh so we can't just expect our goalies to have to step up. Obviously they have to but we need everybody else to shore up in a lot of areas and make sure that everybody carries the load and plays a little bit tighter in the absence of Josh Harding." - Pats assistant coach Chad Mercier.

TONIGHT IN THE WHL: Vancouver at P.A., Brandon at Red Deer, Everett at Tri-City.

NEXT UP: The Pats visit Moose Jaw tomorrow night at 7:00. Catch 620 CKRM's broadcast of the game beginning with the Regina Co-op Gas Bars Pats GameNight Pregame Show at 6:35.

Check out the Regina Pats Statistics

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Western Hockey League Stories from December 16, 2003


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