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WHL Regina Pats

Wheat Kings Sink Pats

March 27, 2022 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Regina Pats News Release


Regina, Sask. - The Regina Pats had a lacklustre performance on Saturday night in front of a season-high 6,241 fans, and were defeated 5-2 by the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Although they out-shot the visitors 28-26, there wasn't a consistent enough effort and the team looked out of sorts for the majority of the night.

"Just being around this group and being here every day, I just think we're a fragile group right now," Pats assistant coach Brad Herauf said. "We're almost like a whipped dog right now and I think with our young group - which we are - we're learning to win and this is just something else we're learning. We've been asking a lot of kids for six, eight weeks now and guys have been jumping up and and then stepping up, and it's hard to be consistent in this league."

The Pats started well, with Zack Stringer opening the scoring on the power play - his 10th of the season. Brandon, however, struck three times in a span of 1:11 late in the first period, and never looked back.

The Wheat Kings added a pair of second period goals, spending nearly half of the game up by a 5-1 score. In the end, four different Wheat Kings scored: Rylen Roersma (2), Vincent Iorio, Ben Thornton and Tyson Zimmer.

Connor Bedard scored late in the third period on a power play, giving him 44 goals on the season.

Regina's power play went 2-for-3, while their penalty kill went perfect 2-for-2.

With Calgary's win, the Pats now sit in 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings with 51 points, but they are still only four back of the 8th-place Swift Current Broncos, who they have three games in hand on. Prince Albert lost in regulation on Saturday, so they remain in 9th with 53 points. The Pats have a game in hand on the Raiders and still play them twice more this season.

THE GOALS

1st Period

REG 1-0 at 3:45- Zack Stringer (10), assisted by Tanner Howe (36) and Ryker Evans (44) // Howe made a great heads-up shot-pass to Stringer in front of the net on the power play, who had a tap-in to open the scoring.

BDN 1-1 at 18:02 - Rylen Roersma (16), assisted by Nolan Ritchie and Jake Chiasson // Roersma, Ritchie and Chiasson had a 3-on-1 odd-man rush and executed the tic-tac-toe to perfection, with Roersma finishing it off on the backdoor.

BDN 2-1 at 18:17 - Vincent Iorio (10), unassisted // Iorio entered the zone 1-on-3 and had his first shot blocked, but stayed with it and got a backhand shot that made it's way past Sim.

BDN 3-1 at 19:13 - Ben Thornton (5), assisted by Chad Nychuk // The Wheat Kings struck for the third time 1:11, after Nychuk found Thornton all alone in front for another backdoor feed.

2nd Period

BDN 4-1 at 8:00 - Tyson Zimmer (9), assisted by Nate Danielson and Chad Nychuk // Another 3-on-1 rush for Brandon ended up in the Pats net, this time after Danielson returned a pass to Zimmer at the far-side post.

BDN 5-1 at 11:06 - Rylen Roersma (17), assisted by Nolan Ritchie and Vincent Iorio // Roersma finished on a 2-on-0 breakaway after a pass from Ritchie.

3rd Period

REG 2-5 at 17:49 - Connor Bedard (44), assisted by Cole Dubinsky (24) and Ryker Evans (45) // Bedard let his patented wrist shot go from the high slot that zipped to the top corner on the blocker side of Kruger.

FINAL: Pats 2 | Wheat Kings 5

STATISTICS

SOG: REG - 28 | BDN - 26

PP: REG - 2/3 | BDN - 0/2

Face-Offs: REG - 36 | BDN - 27

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Regina: Drew Sim stopped 21 of the 26 shots he faced.

Brandon: Ethan Chadwick allowed two goals on 28 shots.

THEY SAID IT

Pats Assistant Coach Brad Herauf: "The last couple of games: the Moose Jaw game, I think kind of put a whipping to us. And then obviously when we went into Swift Current, we played real well and it didn't go our way. It was just a real demoralizing loss and you could even see it last night: the guys were trying their best. They just were trying the wrong way last night to score goals. And tonight, we came out flying, we were playing our game. That's the way we like to play. And we've done that multiple times over the last couple months...one of the big things [is] that you got to elevate your game when you go from 16, 17 to 18, 19, that's what it is: consistency. And I thought just, you know, the events that's happened in the last 10 days to our group, there's no excuse for it. That's on the coaches: to get us ready and get them ready and we're cognizant, but you know, I just feel bad for a group. They're trying their best right now, but it's a learning process and it has been very disappointing over the last couple weeks: what the results have been from our effort that the kids have been really putting in."

3 STARS

Rylen Roersma - BDN: 2G, 3 SOG

Vincent Iorio - BDN: 1G, 1A, 5 SOG

Tyson Zimmer - BDN: 1G, 2 SOG

UP NEXT

The Pats next game is a rematch with the Blades on home ice on Wednesday, March 30, followed by a home game against the Winnipeg ICE on Friday, April 1.

Check out the Regina Pats Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from March 27, 2022


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