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WHL Regina Pats

Pats Take on Blades in Game 1

March 31, 2023 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Regina Pats News Release


Saskatoon, Sask. - The Regina Pats begin game one of their best-of-seven first round playoff series against the Saskatoon Blades at 7:00 p.m. tonight inside the SaskTel Centre.

The Pats and Blades battle in the post-season for the first time since 2006, while both of these clubs enter the playoffs at the same time since 2011 due to both teams peaking and being high in their cycle at different points.

When these two clubs met in the 2006 playoffs, it was the Blades coming out on top, beating the Pats in six games before being swept by the Medicine Hat Tigers in round two. The Pats and Blades have met in the WHL playoffs six times in series and one time in round robin throughout league history, as this matchup will be the eighth all-time playoff meeting between the two inter-provincial rivals.

The last time the Pats defeated the Blades in a playoff series was the 1993 post-season when Regina took down Saskatoon in five games to advance to the Eastern Division Finals before being swept by the Swift Current Broncos in the next round.

THE PATS

The Pats are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and for the 15th time in the last 23 seasons as the club finished the regular season 34-30-3-1 with 72 points, good for sixth in the Eastern Conference and 11th amongst 22 WHL teams. The offence was near the top all season long, ranking fifth in goals for, scoring 262 goals this season, averaging 3.85 goals per-game.

They were led up front by Connor Bedard, Alexander Suzdalev, Tanner Howe and defenceman Stanislav Svozil while also receiving solid goaltending from veteran goaltender Drew Sim who finished tied for third in the league in wins with 27.

Bedard led the entire league in goals (71) and points (143) while finishing tied for first in assists with 72 through just 57 games. Howe and Suzdalev were a force, too, producing 85 and 86 points respectively. Stanislav Svozil was named to the Eastern Division first all-star team, recording 78 points this season, finishing third amongst defencemen in points and second in assists with 67 through just 56 games.

The Pats special teams was also a key component to their success this season, which will need to continue heading into the playoffs. Their power play finished seventh in the WHL at 26.7% while their penalty kill saw a huge improvement from last year, going from 71.9% in 2021-22 to 77.0% in 2022-23.

THE BLADES

On the other side, the Saskatoon Blades are coming off their first 100+ point season since 2010-11 when they went 56-13-1-2 with 115 points as they are coming off a 2022-23 campaign where the Blades went 48-15-4-1 with 101 points, good for third in the Eastern Conference and fifth in the WHL.

The Blades were near the top in all offensive and defensive categories this season, ranking sixth in goals for (257) while giving up the second least amount of goals against (171). They also took the second least amount of penalties (709) as well as the least amount of shots against on average (25.41).

Their special teams was also close to the top of the WHL, finishing with the fourth best power play (27.5%) and the third best penalty kill (82.4%).

Trevor Wong, Aidan De La Gorgendiere and Austin Elliott were named Eastern Division second team all-stars. Wong led the Blades in points (86) and assists (59) while De La Gorgendiere finished tied for seventh amongst all WHL blueliners in points (65) and power play assists (31). Elliott, a rookie goaltender who played in the SJHL last season, posted the seventh best save percentage (.911), the third lowest goals against average (2.20) and tied for the seventh most wins (25) all while splitting the load with Ethan Chadwick who appeared in 34 games while Elliott played in 37 contests.

The Blades also received a solid offensive season from two sophomores as Egor Sidorov and Brandon Lisowsky built off their strong 2021-22 season. Sidorov led the Blades in goals with 40 while Lisowsky broke his career-high of 33 goals set last season with 38 tallies this time around. Conner Roulette who was acquired in a blockbuster deal from Seattle for Kyle Crnkovic in the offseason also finished above a point per-game with 63 points in 60 games.

HOW THE TEAMS MATCHUP

Saskatoon Regina

Team Record 48-15-4-1 - 101 points 34-30-3-1 - 72 points

Division Ranking 2nd East 4th East

Conference Ranking 3rd Eastern 6th Eastern

League Ranking 5th 11th

Past 10 Games 8-2-0-0 3-6-1-0

Streak 2-0-0-0 0-2-0-0

Last Game 6-3 W @ Moose Jaw (Mar 25 2023) Final 5-3 L vs Prince Albert (Mar 25 2023) Final

Home Record 25-6-3-0 18-15-0-1

Away Record 23-9-1-1 16-15-3-0

GF 257 262

GA 171 277

PP (Overall) (73/265) 27.5% (65/243) 26.7%

PP (Home) (40/138) 29.0% (31/117) 26.5%

PP (Away) (33/127) 26.0% (34/126) 27.0%

PK (Overall) (43/245) 82.4% (65/283) 77.0%

PK (Home) (22/124) 82.3% (24/124) 80.6%

PK (Away) (21/121) 82.6% (41/159) 74.2%

PP vs. Opp. (8/19) 42.1% (4/18) 22.2%

PK vs. Opp. (4/18) 77.8% (8/19) 57.9%

Leading Rookie Keller (13-17-30) Suzdalev (38-48-86)

Most PIM Lies - 82 Vaughan - 78

Team PIM/GM 10.4/Game 12.5/Game

Leading Scorers Wong (27-59-86) Bedard (71-72-143)

Sidorov (40-36-76) Suzdalev (38-48-86)

Lisowsky (38-33-71) Howe (36-49-85)

De La Gorgendiere (12-53-65) Svozil (11-67-78)

Roulette (24-39-63) Valis (20-28-48)

Last 5 Games 6-3 W @ Moose Jaw (Mar 25 2023) Final 5-3 L vs Prince Albert (Mar 25 2023) Final

3-2 W vs Regina (Mar 24 2023) Final 3-2 L @ Saskatoon (Mar 24 2023) Final

4-2 L vs Regina (Mar 19 2023) Final 4-2 W @ Saskatoon (Mar 19 2023) Final

3-2 W vs Brandon (Mar 18 2023) Final 7-3 W @ Moose Jaw (Mar 18 2023) Final

3-2 W @ Swift Current (Mar 15 2023) Final 9-5 L vs Moose Jaw (Mar 17 2023) Final

Leading After 1st 29-3-3-0 20-6-2-0

Leading After 2nd 36-1-2-1 26-2-2-0

Tied After 1st 13-5-1-1 8-3-0-0

Tied After 2nd 9-1-1-0 4-7-0-0

Trailing After 1st 6-7-0-0 6-21-1-1

Trailing After 2nd 3-13-1-0 4-21-1-1

Out Shooting Opponents 31-9-2-0 12-9-0-1

Out Shot by Opponents 14-5-1-1 20-21-3-0

1-Goal Games 14-1-4-1 12-6-3-1

2-Goal Games 9-9-0-0 4-4-0-0

3-Goal Games 12-3-0-0 10-8-0-0

WHERE TO WATCH/LISTEN

Radio: 620ckrm.com

Stream: WHL Live

REGULAR SEASON HEAD-TO-HEAD (2-4-0)

The Pats and Blades have played each other 34 times in playoff games, with Regina going 17-16-1 all-time. The Pats have won three of their six all-time series, while losing both round-robin games in 1986.

Date Road Home Time Result

November 13th Regina Saskatoon 4:00 p.m. CST L, 5-2

December 17th Saskatoon Regina 7:00 p.m. CST L, 6-1

January 13th Saskatoon Regina 7:00 p.m. CST W, 7-4

March 5th Saskatoon Regina 4:00 p.m. CST L, 5-2

March 19th Regina Saskatoon 4:00 p.m. CDT W, 4-2

March 24th Regina Saskatoon 7:00 p.m. MDT L, 3-2

It was the Saskatoon Blades ousting the Regina Pats 4-2 in the season series, outscoring the Pats 23-18 through six contests. On the flip side, the Pats went 2-2 in the second-half of the season against the Blades, while outscoring them 15-14 over their last four contests against Saskatoon.

HEAD-TO-HEAD INDIVIDUAL STATS

Saskatoon Blades

# Name GP G A PTS PIM +/-

38 Trevor Wong 6 7 8 15 4 3

8 Brandon Lisowsky 6 6 3 9 4 0

5 Aidan De La Gorgendiere 6 1 7 8 2 0

19 Egor Sidorov 5 3 4 7 4 4

34 Conner Roulette 5 1 5 6 2 5

24 Tanner Molendyk 6 2 3 5 2 5

61 Jake Chiasson (total) 7 1 3 4 0 1

BDN 3 1 0 1 0 0

SAS 4 0 3 3 0 1

9 Jayden Wiens 4 2 1 3 4 -1

28 Lukas Hansen 6 1 2 3 6 0

3 Blake Gustafson 5 0 3 3 4 4

47 Charlie Wright 6 0 3 3 0 3

29 Jordan Keller 6 1 1 2 0 4

18 Vaughn Watterodt 6 1 1 2 7 -2

# Name GP W L OTL SL Mins GA GAA SV%

31 Austin Elliott 4 3 1 0 0 238:14 10 2.52 0.904

33 Ethan Chadwick 2 1 1 0 0 116:05 8 4.13 0.800

Regina Pats

# Name GP G A PTS PIM +/-

98 Connor Bedard 5 5 4 9 2 -2

91 Alexander Suzdalev 6 3 4 7 4 -3

43 Tanner Howe 6 2 5 7 4 -2

11 Stanislav Svozil 5 0 7 7 2 3

55 Sam Oremba 6 2 2 4 0 2

22 Steel Quiring (total) 4 2 0 2 2 1

REG 3 1 0 1 2 1

EVT 1 1 0 1 2 0

13 Zack Stringer 5 1 1 2 0 -3

27 Borya Valis 4 1 1 2 2 1

40 Parker Berge 6 0 2 2 6 -3

37 X Easton Armstrong 2 1 0 1 0 -3

38 Brayden Barnett 4 1 0 1 2 0

52 Braxton Whitehead 6 1 0 1 0 -3

29 Tanner Brown 6 0 1 1 2 -4

# Name GP W L OTL SL Mins GA GAA SV%

31 Kelton Pyne 1 1 0 0 0 60:00 2 2.00 0.955

33 Drew Sim 5 1 4 0 0 295:00 21 4.27 0.858

BY THE NUMBERS

143: Points (71G-72A) in 57 games for captain Connor Bedard led the WHL...since having his 35-game point-streak end on Feb. 3, he recorded 53 points (27G-26A) over his last 20 games, with points in 17 of those...he's recorded 10G-8A-17PTS last 5GP.

71: Goals in the 2022-23 regular season led the WHL, while his 72 assists were tied for first...he also led the way in shots on goal (360), points per-game (2.51), goals per-game (1.24), and finished tied for first in game-winning-goals with 11...all while playing in only 57 games.

86: Points this season (38G-48A) in 66 games this season for winger Alexander Suzdalev led all first year WHL players...he also led all rookies in goals (38), assists (48), points (86), power play goals (17), and power play assists (19), and tied for first in points per-game (1.30).

41: Number of points (6G-35A) in 28 games for Stanislav Svozil since coming back from the World Juniors on Jan. 13...the Czechia product finished first in power play assists (36), second in assists (67), second in points per-game (1.39), and third in points (78) in just 56 games.

85: Points this season (36G-49A) for second year forward Tanner Howe was tied for 13th in the WHL...the Prince Albert, Sask. product ended the regular season on a six game point-streak (4G-4A-8PTS) and goals in three straight contests.

COMING UP

Game Date Away Home Time

2 Sunday, April 2 Regina Saskatoon 4 p.m. MT

3 Tuesday, April 4 Saskatoon Regina 7 p.m. MT

4 Wednesday, April 5 Saskatoon Regina 7 p.m. MT

5* Friday, April 7 Regina Saskatoon 7 p.m. MT

6* Saturday, April 8 Saskatoon Regina 7 p.m. MT

7* Monday, April 10 Regina Saskatoon 7 p.m. MT

*If Necessary

Check out the Regina Pats Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from March 31, 2023


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