The Regina Pats dropped their third game out of their last four matchups with a 6-2 defeat against the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday night.
Regina remains five points behind Prince Albert for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Tanner Howe and Tye Spencer scored for the Pats.
Hurricanes defenceman Tristen Doyle opened the scoring with his first goal of the year.
Sean Tschigeri extended Lethbridge’s lead when he fired a shot past Pats Goalie Kelton Pyne, who was without a stick at the time of the goal.
In the second period, Pyne denied the Hurricanes Miguel Marques on a penalty shot. But Marques would get his revenge scoring his 19th goal of the season shortly afterwards, corralling a loose rebound.
Lethbridge jumped out to a 4-0 advantage in the third period when Logan Wormald’s shot bounced over Pyne and into the back of the Pats net.
Regina showed some signs of a possible comeback with two goals in a 3:08 span. Howe picked up his 22nd goal of the year after deflecting Zach Moore’s passing attempt.
Tye Spencer cut the Pats deficit down to with two, capitalizing on a rebound attempt from Keagan Slaney, scoring his 12th goal short-handed.
But Lethbridge would dash Regina’s hopes 29 seconds later with Dylan Sydor scoring his 23rd of the year.
Trae Wilke finished off the scoring.
Pyne ended up with 31 saves.
The Hurricanes were 2/4 on the power play. The Pats were 0/1 in their only power play attempt.
Pats Head Coach Brad Herauf said Friday’s loss was more than a bounce not going their way.
“I don’t think we were working hard enough for that bounce,” said Herauf, “Individually there were too many guys who lost to many stick battles, because we were chasing the game.”
In terms of the offence, the Pats Head Coach it was a night the offence needed to be basic.
“I think it’s one of those games we needed to be more simplistic, they (Lethbridge) kept a lot of things to the outside, they weren’t giving us much even when we were getting chances.”
The Pats will finish off a busy of January at the Brandt Centre on Saturday when they host the Medicine Hat Tigers on Nickelodeon Night, where Regina will wear Patrick Star jerseys as apart of SpongeBob SquarePants Night.
Coverage on 620 CKRM begins at 6:30, opening faceoff is 7:00.
