REGINA — The Regina Pat Canadians are the 2024-25 Saskatchewan Male AAA Hockey League champions.
The Pat Canadians finished off their championship final series with a 3-1 victory over the Moose Jaw WINMAR Warriors in Game 3, giving Regina a three-games-to-none sweep in the best-of-five series.
The win is the first SMAAAHL title for Regina since 2015, when they won the Western Regional and ended up with bronze at the Telus Cup national tournament.
As was the case in every game of the series, Game 3 was another close battle from start to finish, but the Pat Canadians got off to exactly the start they were hoping for.
The Warriors came into the game without having scored a goal on 11 power play chances, but received their first opportunity on the man advantage three minutes into the game. Regina would remain perfect on their penalty kill, though, and moments later, they’d take the lead in the game.
The Pat Canadians then made it a 2-0 game just over a minute later when Reid Bechard was in the right place at the right time to pounce on a loose puck at the side of the Warriors net. He’d poke the puck past Warriors goaltender Luke McKechnie, and Regina had early control of the contest.
A kneeing double minor midway through the second gave Moose Jaw a lengthy chance to get off their power play schneid, and they’d do just that. Gage Nagel scored his sixth of the playoffs, taking a feed from Carson Deichert in the slot and putting home a backhand with 9:50 to play in the period.
The start of the third saw the teams go into run-and-gun mode, leading to duelling scoring chances at either end of the ice in the opening moments, but both McKechnie and Pat Cs goaltender Taylor Tabashniuk made a series of big saves to keep it a one-goal game.
Eli Johnson did the honours, scoring on a shot from the slot with 8:05 remaining, with his second power play goal of the series making it a 3-1 game.
The Warriors would pull McKechnie for the extra attacker with 2:50 remaining in the game but would only get a couple of scoring chances, and Regina would have their win.
Both Tabashniuk and McKechnie faced a total of 19 shots in the contest.
The Pat Canadians will now have a bit of time to refocus before hitting the road to Kenora, Ont., where they’ll represent Saskatchewan in the Telus Cup Western Regional playdown beginning Thursday.
A win there will send Regina to the Telus Cup national U18 AAA tournament from Apr. 21-27 in Fraser Valley, B.C.
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