WHL Regina Pats

Pats Stymied by Bjarnason; Fall 4-2 to Brandon

Published on October 10, 2021 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Regina Pats News Release


Regina, Sask. - The Regina Pats controlled the flow of play and generated plenty of offensive chances on Sunday afternoon, but they were defeated 4-2 by the Brandon Wheat Kings after a pair of empty net goals. The Pats are now 2-3 on the season, while the Wheat Kings improve to 2-3.

The Regiment got a power play marker from Cole Dubinsky and a late third period goal from Cole Carrier, but the story was 16-year-old goaltender Carson Bjarnason, who stopped 39 of 41 in his first career WHL start.

Matthew Kieper was strong again and stopped 20 of 22 for the Pats, as the Wheat Kings hit the empty net twice in a span of 16 seconds to make it 4-1 with 1:20 remaining.

GAME SUMMARY

The Pats were by far the better team to kick off this game, which was expected given it was the Wheat Kings third game in three days and they had played at home the night before.

An early power play and some 4-on-4 action gave Regina some room to operate in the offensive zone, with Connor Bedard, Drew Englot, Logan Nijhoff and Zack Stringer each getting good chances. Each time, however, Bjarnason made the necessary stops.

In the second period, the Pats appeared to have surrendered the game's first goal, but it was immediately called back for a high stick.

Just a couple minutes later, Brandon would score the game's first goal, for real this time, off a tic-tac-toe play that was finished off by defenceman Chad Nychuk.

Just past the halfway mark of the period, the Pats found the equalizer, courtesy of Cole Dubinsky, just moments after Connor Bedard dangled his way into the offensive zone and shot one off the pipe.

After 40 minutes of play, the game was all square 1-1, with the Pats leading the shots on goal counter 25-18.

Just under eight minutes into the third period, the Wheat Kings scored the go-ahead goal on a power play, after Logan Hammett's one-timer just snuck through Kieper and rolled into the back of the net.

The Pats put their foot on the gas after surrendering that goal, with Zack Smith and Tom Cadieux each getting a grade-A chance back-to-back, but the score remained 2-1.

With 1:53 to go in the game, the Pats pulled Kieper for the extra attacker following a Brandon icing call, but not long after Stanislav Svozil's heavy one-timer was stopped by Bjarnason, Nychuk found the empty net from the neutral zone. Sixteen seconds later, Rylen Roersma also scored into the empty net to make the score 4-1.

With under 10 seconds to go, Svozil's point shot was redirected in by Carrier, to make the final score 4-2.

The Pats went 1-for-6 on the power play and out-shot Brandon 41-27 in the end.

3 STARS

Carson Bjarnason - BDN - 39/41 -1st career WHL win

Connor Bedard - REG - 1A, 6 SOG

Logen Hammett - BDN - GWG

WHAT'S NEXT

The Pats have home-and-home next weekend with the Winnipeg ICE, hosting them on Friday and heading on the road on Saturday.

To get your tickets for Friday, click here. For the full Pats schedule, click here.

Check out the Regina Pats Statistics

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Western Hockey League Stories from October 10, 2021


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