The buzz was back in the building at the Brandt Centre on Friday night and once again the hats were on the ice courtesy of Connor Bedard, as he led the Pats to a 7-4 win over the Saskatoon Blades.
Bedard scored another hat-trick, and added a pair of assists to lead the Pats scoring charge. In his first two games in the Regina lineup since returning from the World Juniors, the Pats captain has seven goals and four assists. The 17-year old also achieved another major milestone with his 200th career WHL point against the Blades. His point streak was also extended to 29 games.
HAT-TRICK. CONNOR. BEDARD.
Just ridiculous.#LegendsInTheMaking | #REGvsSAS pic.twitter.com/slRag7VFxS
— Regina Pats (@WHLPats) January 14, 2023
Steel Quiring scored in his Pats debut. Zack Stringer, Borya Valis and Braxton Whitehead rounded out the scoring for Regina.
Stanislav Svozil made his return to the lineup after helping Czechia win a silver medal at the World Juniors and collected four assists.
Drew Sim earned the win between the pipes making 21 saves in the victory.
Assistant coach Brad Herauf said after the game, Friday’s win was important to the Pats especially with the tough start to begin the second half of the season.
He feels the returns of Bedard and Svozil helps out the entire team.
“Our team definitely feeds off of those two guys. ”
Offensively the Pats were able to take advantage of a few odd man situations against the Blades and Herauf believes they are capable producing more goals in that fashion.
“We’re obviously dangerous off the rush, if teams aren’t managing the puck in the neutral zone, obviously with the right players on the ice, we can turn those into a scoring opportunity really quick. ”
Whitehead agreed that the Pats play inside of the neutral zone was key factor in the win.
“We really picked off pucks and got into the right places, our P.K. came through and everything connected tonight which is great.”
Similar to Regina’s win against Red Deer back in November, Whitehead thinks the victory for the Pats on Friday was a result them playing like a team.
“Everybody was playing for each other, we weren’t playing individually, which I think gets us down. ”
The win moves the Pats over the .500 mark with a 20-19-1-1 record on this season.
On Saturday night, Regina will have another tough test as they close out their four game homestand against the Portland Winterhawks.
Coverage on 620 CKRM will begin at 6:35, opening faceoff is 7:00 at the Brandt Centre.
