The Regina Pats were inches away from a third period lead as they had their six-game winning streak snapped on Sunday after a 5-2 loss to the Saskatoon Blades.
Moments after Connor Bedard hit the post, Egor Sidorov broke a 2-2 tie early in the third period to give the Blades the go-ahead goal. Sidorov would add his 40th goal of the season later in the period as an insurance marker.
Trevor Wong led the scoring for Saskatoon with a hat trick.
Alexander Suzdalev opened the scoring for Regina with his 36th goal of the season. Suzdalev was also celebrating his 19th birthday on Sunday.
Sam Oremba added a goal and an assist, Stanislav Svozil had a pair of assists.
For the third time this season Bedard was held off the scoresheet, as he remains at 59 goals this season.
Drew Sim took the loss as he made 32 saves for the Pats.
Following the game, Assistant Coach Ken Schneider felt Saskatoon had a little bit more jump than his team.
“At times we were getting outplayed a fair bit, I thought we didn’t have enough energy.”
Despite that, he added the Pats were very much in the game before Bedard hitting the post.
“The puck goes the other way and they score and that happens a lot in this game, at that point it was the turning point.”
Schneider noted the Blades found a way to neutralized Bedard throughout the game.
“I think they really checked Connor hard tonight, he was having to fight and battle through checks all night long, after 40 minutes that starts wearing on a guy.”
Despite the loss, it was a successful weekend for the Pats, picking up two out of three wins including wins two of the top of the teams in the Eastern Conference, the Winnipeg ICE and Red Deer Rebels.
Sam Oremba said after the game even with the loss to Saskatoon, it was a big weekend for the Pats.
“Just showing that we can play with them guys and give them a run for their money is big for our group and we’ll keep building off of that. ”
With Sunday’s loss, Regina’s record drops down to 31-25-2-1 with 65 points. They sit in the 6th spot in the Eastern Conference, they lead Medicine Hat by four points. The Pats were unable to make up any ground on the Lethbridge Hurricanes as they still trail them by five points for 5th spot. Next weekend, the Pats will have a two-game trip to Lethbridge and Medicine Hat.
Before the Pats travel to Alberta, they will finish their homestand on Wednesday night when they welcome the Edmonton Oil Kings to the Brandt Centre.
Coverage of the game on 620 CKRM begins at 6:35, Dante De Caria will have the play-by-play beginning at 7:00.
