Opportunistic Bedard pushes Pats past Raiders

The Pats celebrate a third period goal from Connor Bedard.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. - Prince Albert Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said the most effective way to neutralize Regina Pats phenom centre Connor Bedard is to hide his sticks and skates.

Habscheid, who is one of the WHL’s all-time coaching greats, was making a joke of course with that statement in a post-game scrum after his Raiders fell to the Pats 3-1 on Friday night at the Art Hauser Centre. The contest opened the WHL regular season for both teams.

Bedard netted Regina’s first and third goals on the night.

Still, Habscheid, who got play with the Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers for a short time in the 1980s, had to give props and marvel at what Bedard could do.

Connor Bedard (#98) fires home his first period goal on Friday.

The bench boss thought his club did a good job in containing Bedard, but the 16-year-old North Vancouver, B.C., product cashed in on his limited chances when they came to disappoint most of the 2,578 spectators in attendance at the 2,580 seat rink.

“He (Bedard) is a good player, but I thought we did a good job,” said Habscheid, whose team still has four key players away attending NHL training camps. “He was opportunistic tonight.

“I thought we did a good job with him. He had the one chance, and it was a good shot on the first one. On the second one, it was in tight, and he just makes some good plays.

Carter Serhyenko made 36 saves Friday for the Raiders.

“Our penalty kill was good against him. Five on five for the most part I thought we did a good job. When he gets a chance, he can score.”

Bedard capitalized on his first good chance to score in the contest at the 5:37 mark of the first period. He took a zone entry pass from linemate Zack Smith, skated into the Prince Albert zone and wired a shot to the top left corner of the Raiders goal.

Bedard, who stands 5-foot-9 and weighs 181 pounds, thought that quick start set a good tone for his side as the Pats would outshoot the Raiders 39-22 in the contest.

“I thought we came our really hard,” said Bedard. “Obviously, we wanted that first one.

Raiders RW Zachary Wilson, left, and Pats C Drew Englot battle it out.

“That is a really good team, and I thought we were able to outplay them.”

The Pats extended their edge to 2-0 with 1:36 remaining in the opening frame when veteran centre Drew Englot, who turns 19-years-old later this month, slid home an on-ice shot past Raiders netminder Carter Serhyenko, who faced 13 shots in the first 20 minutes.

The Raiders came out with a lot more fire in the second. Just before midway point of the frame, the Raiders were awarded a penalty shot when left-winger Evan Herman had a clear break to the Regina goal and was hauled down by Pats defenceman Layton Feist from behind.

Raiders LW Evan Herman got stopped on a penalty shot chance.

On the penalty shot, Herman performed a few stickhandling moves before snapping a shot that was turned away by Pats netminder Matthew Kieper.

The Raiders broke through on the scoreboard at the 11:33 mark of the second when right-winger Cale Sanders sprung left-winger Keaton Sorensen with a smart pass in alone on the Regina goal. Sorensen slid a backhander past Kieper to cut the Pats lead to 2-1.

The 19-year-old veteran forward was pumped to help turn the momentum in favour of the host side with his goal.

“We had a good shift there,” said Sorensen. “We took care of the defensive zone, and we got rewarded.

Keaton Sorensen sets to slide home a backhander for the Raiders.

“I got a nice pass by Sandy (Sanders) there, and I was lucky enough to finish her.”

Just moments after that tally, Raiders left-winger Ethan Ironside had a golden chance to even things up, but he rang a shot from the left wing boards off the post of the Regina goal.

Sorensen said it would have helped his squad to finished a couple of other chances in the second.

“You can’t really win games without shots, so I think we just had to get some more pucks to the net,” said Sorensen. “I would have been nice to pop a couple of more and finish some other chances.”

Ethan Ironside rang a shot off the post in the second period.

The Pats dominated the contest territorially in the third period.  With 8:44 remaining in the frame, Bedard fired home a key insurance goal through a screen midrange from the front of the Prince Albert goal to put the Pats up 3-1.

The Raiders got on the power play with the 2:04 remaining in the third and applied intense pressure during that time in the Regina zone. Prince Albert created a couple of net scramble scoring opportunities but wasn’t able to put the puck in the back of the Regina net.

Kieper stopped 21 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Pats. Carter Serhyenko turned away36 shots to take the setback in net for the Raiders.

Pats defenceman Ryker Evans picked up two assists in the win.

Ryker Evans had two assists for the Pats on Friday.

The Pats weren’t able to score on any of their four power-play chances, while the Raiders failed to score on their one opportunity with the man advantage.

Bedard was pleased his squad was able to start their regular season with a win.

“It is definitely nice,” said Bedard. “I think we just have to carry it over with such a short turnaround too.

“Obviously, you know there are 67 more games. We have lots of hockey left obviously, but it was definitely nice to get that first one.”

The two sides go at it again on Saturday at 1 p.m. Saskatchewan time at the Brandt Centre in Regina in a contest that will be shown live on CBC.

A mad scramble occurs around the Pats net late in the third period.

Bedard said the short turnaround will be challenging, but it both sides are going through that turnaround together.

“I think it is going to be not easy for everyone, but everyone is in the same boat,” said Bedard. “Obviously, we get home and get to bed and then obviously do what we can to prepare ourselves as well as we can.”

Looking to Saturday’s encounter, Habscheid doesn’t think his side will have a problem getting up for that clash noting it is on national TV.

“The bus leaves at 6:15 tomorrow morning, so it is an unusual game,” said Habscheid. “These kids get a chance to play on CBC.

The Pats celebrate their win on Friday night.

“For some of these guys, that is maybe a once in a lifetime thing, so I don’t think they will have a problem loading the bus or being on the bus at 6:15 to travel four hours to play on CBC from coast to coast.”

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Rebuilding Pats win third in a row, best Blades after shootout

Zack Smith reacts to scoring his shootout winner for the Pats.

    The rebuilding Regina Pats are playing like the games matter.

    The Pats are skating through just their second season since host the CHL championship tournament - Memorial Cup – in May of 2018. They went all in making a number of trades to make their roster an experience veteran one in the 2017-18 campaign.

    Due to going all in, they are still going through the stages of a major rebuild, but when they hit the ice, they are trying to play like a playoff berth is one the line. That approach is resulting in some wins.

    On Wednesday night before 2,850 spectators at the SaskTel Centre, the Pats downed the host Saskatoon Blades 3-2 after a tiebreaking shootout for a third straight victory. The visitors took the tiebreaking session 2-1.

Zack Smith helped the Pats win their third straight game.

    In the shootout, Carson Denomie scored in the first round for the Pats, and overage left-winger Riley McKay tallied in the second round for the Blades.

    With the teams even at 1-1 in the tiebreaking session, Pats rookie 18-year-old right-winger Zack Smith had the final shot in the third round. The Martensville, Sask., product put a backhand shot past Blades netminder Nolan Maier to give the Pats the win.

    “Strucher (Pats head coach Dave Struch) really stressed that we play the right way and play as a team and don’t play selfish,” said Smith. “I think we did that really well tonight.

    “That is the kind of team we are. We have to just chip pucks and go forecheck hard. That is what we did tonight.”

Riley Krane scored the Pats first goal on Wednesday.

    Due to the fact his hometown is just outside of Saskatoon’s northern border, Smith had his share of family and friends in attendance on Wednesday. He was proud of his shootout winner.

    “I just went in, gave the goalie a little fake, he bit a little bit and pulled to my backhand,” said Smith. “I pretty much had a lot of the net open, so I just put it there.

    “It felt good.”

    The win allowed the Pats to improve to 16-26-3-2. They started the campaign with a 1-10 record but have gone 15-16-3-2 over their last 36 games.

    While not mathematically eliminated from post-season contention, their chances of making playoffs are extremely slim.

Martin Fasko-Rudas scored the Blades first goal on Wednesday.

    They trail the Blades, who saw their record move to 25-20-2-3, by 18 points in the standings for the second wildcat position and the final playoff berth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.

    With that noted, Struch believes his side is building a lot of character playing like a playoff position was on the line.

    “We want to get into the race,” said Struch. “We got off to a real difficult start this year for whatever reason.

    “We wanted to chase the race not that it was a playoff race. We wanted to try and get into it. Every night for us is a playoff game.

    “Every practice for us is a playoff game, so our guys have been doing this for five months already. It seems like it is easy for our guys to do it.”

Pats C Drew Englot screens Blades G Nolan Maier.

    The Pats struck 44 seconds into Wednesday’s contest when right-winger Riley Krane blew a shot past Blades netminder Nolan Maier.

    The Blades had a big chance to even the score at the 8:30 mark, when left-winger Alex Morozoff was hooked down on a break to the Regina goal by Pats defenceman Steven Zonneveld.

    With 52.5 seconds remaining in the first period, Blades overage defence Nolan Kneen engaged Krane in a good tilt.

    The Blades evened the score at 1-1 at the 13:04 mark of the second period on a power-play goal from import Slovakian right-winger Martin Fasko-Rudas. 

The Blades celebrate a third period goal from Jayden Wiens.

    Fasko-Rudas gathered the rebound of a point shot from overage defenceman Scott Walford and tucked the puck behind Pats netminder Donovan Buskey.

    Just 1:22 later, the Pats jumped back out in front 2-1. Pats import Czech winger Jan Cikhart got the puck in the right side of the Saskatoon goal on the forecheck and centred a pass to 17-year-old centre Drew Englot.

    Englot fired in a shot that Maier got a piece of, but the puck trickled into the goal to put the Blades ahead.

    The Blades evened the score at 2-2 at the 3:34 mark on the third on a positive bounce play. A shot from Blades left-winger Braden Plaschewsky deflected off linemate Jayden Wiens, who was hooked down by a Pats player, into the Regina goal.

    Overall, Struch was pleased with the effort of his players even when mistakes were made.

    “This is the way we play,” said Struch, whose Pats have won both their encounters with the Blades this season in extra time. “That is every single game.
    “Yeah, we make mistakes. Some nights we make more than others. Tonight, it is just a matter of our identity.

Riley McKay turns up ice for the Blades.

    “These guys play hard for each other.”

    Before the midway point of the third, the Pats had a good chance to go ahead on a power play, but defenceman Ryker Evans wired a point shot off the post.

    Late in the frame, Maier made a key left pad stop on Pats captain Austin Pratt to keep the two sides even on the scoreboard.

    In overtime, both sides had big chances to net the winner. Fasko-Rudas had the last big chance, but his shot right before the buzzer was turned away by Buskey.

    That set the stage for the Pats to win it in the tiebreaking shootout.
    Maier stopped 23 shots in goal for the Blades through 65 minutes and one of three shooters in the shootout. Buskey turned away 23 shots in goal for the Pats and two of three shooters in the shootout.

The Pats celebrate their win on Wednesday night.

    The Pats return to action on Friday, when they travel to Swift Current to take on the Broncos (7 p.m., Innovation Credit Union i-Plex).

    The Blades get back at it on Saturday, when they travel to Moose Jaw to take on the Warriors (7 p.m., Mosaic Place).

    Smith said his club is feeling good going into the weekend.

    “I think we are all pretty confident right now,” said Smith. “We’ve won three in a row.

    “We’re just going to keep this confidence going into Swift Current and hopefully beat them a few times on the weekend and see where we can go from there.”

Wouters chipping in, challenges others to join in faceoff charity

Captain Chase Wouters (#44) gets set to take a draw for the Blades.

    Saskatoon Blades captain Chase Wouters is chipping and challenging others to join him in the Nutrien Faceoff for Hunger.

    Since the start of the season, Nutrien has said it will donate $10 to the Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre for every faceoff Wouters wins this season. After Wednesday’s action, Wouters lead the WHL with the most faceoffs at 665.

    Last Thursday in a video posted on his Twitter account, Wouters said he would donate $1 out of his own pocket for every faceoff he won over the Blades final 21 regular season games for the Nutrien Faceoff for Hunger to go to the Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre.

    Wouters challenged anyone who saw the video to join him in donating a dollar for every draw he won over the Blades final 21 regular season games. The fourth-year veteran had 625 faceoff wins when the Blades entered the final 21 regular season games.

    Over Twitter, Blades play-by-play voice Les Lazaruk, Saskatoon Police Chief Troy Cooper and Saskatoon city councillor Troy Davies have said they have accepted Wouters’ challenge and will join in on the charitable endeavour.

Hey #BladeCity, I am challenging you to join me in the @NutrienLTD face-off for hunger! Jump on board https://t.co/bZnjMhZ2hV pic.twitter.com/YwrgrKJ636

— Chase Wouters (@wouters_44) January 31, 2020

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Expect Blazers to battle to bitter end in SMAAAHL final

Rhett Gibson breaks in on a scoring chance for the Blazers.

    Don’t expect the Saskatoon Blazers to let a special season die easily.

    On Wednesday at the Rod Hamm Memorial Arena, the Blazers fought tooth and nail to try and claim a pivotal Game 3 of the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League championship series against the Notre Dame Hounds. Locked in a 2-2 tie after 40 minutes of play, Hounds 15-year-old defenceman Maxwell Joy scored the only goal of the third period to deliver the visitors to a 3-2 victory.

    With that result, the Hounds took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series. They will be looking to close things out on Friday, when the two sides meet in Game 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Duncan McNeill Arena in Wilcox.

    For the Blazers, the setback in Wednesday was a tough one to take. They took Game 1 of the SMAAAHL title series last Saturday at home 3-0. The Hounds rebounded to take Game 2 with a thrilling 3-2 double overtime result in Wilcox.

Max Gudnason (#25) had a goal for the Blazers on Wednesday.

    The Blazers will be facing their third elimination game of the post-season. Of course, they won the first two way back in the first round with victories in Games 4 and 5 to take their best-of-five set with the rival Prince Albert Mintos 3-2.

    The Blazers had a strong regular season posting a 31-10-3 regular season record to finish third overall in the league. They finished five points in the standings behind the first place Regina Pat Canadians.

    The Pat Canadians fell to the Hounds in a series deciding Game 5 in the semifinal round.

Nolan Allan has been a force on the blue-line for the Blazers.

    The Hounds, who are the defending SMAAAHL champions, finished fourth overall in the league’s regular season standings with a 28-12-2-2 mark.

    While the Blazers have had a strong season, they have encountered adversity points. Any time an adversity point hits, they face it head on.

    Saskatoon appeared to be poised to top the SMAAAHL standings. Weather literally wreaked havoc on their late season schedule resulting in postponements of three games.

    As a result, the Blazers had a roller-coaster final seven games of the regular season winning three times, falling three times in regulation and falling once in overtime.

    The overtime loss closed their regular season schedule on Feb. 27 at Rod Hamm, when the Pat Canadians posted a 3-2 win with star forward Cole Sillinger scoring the winner while short-handed.

    After falling behind the Mintos 2-1 in the first round, the Blazers rallied to take that series 3-2.

    In a best-of-five semifinal series, they downed the Tisdale Trojans in four games.

The Blazers celebrate a goal from Hayden Wilm on Wednesday.

    Even on Wednesday, it seemed the Blazers would find a way to win.

    The Hounds went ahead 1-0 at the 4:26 mark on a goal by star forward Coalson Wolford. Less than two minutes later, the Blazers tied things up at 1-1 with a short-handed goal coming from the stick of veteran forward Max Gudnason.

    Forward Drew Englot put the Hounds back on top 2-1 near the midway point of the second.

    The Blazers battled back with a power-play goal from rookie forward Hayden Wilm with 3:57 remaining in the second.

    Joy scored his winner at the 5:48 mark of the third. While the Blazers had the puck for the majority of the time for the rest of the third, their shots on goal were limited due to the defensive work of the Hounds, who trapped up the centre ice zone efficiently.

Cole Nagy played a physical game for the Blazers on Wednesday.

    Matthew Pesenti turned away 22 shots to take the setback in goal for the Blazers. Thomas Wardle had an outstanding game making 29 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Hounds.

    The Blazers had great efforts from a number of their standouts. The most noticeable was 15-year-old rookie offensive defenceman Nolan Allan, who was selected in the first round and third overall in the 2018 WHL Bantam Draft by the Prince Albert Raiders.

    Allan was a force at both ends of the ice, and he had serious control of the play, when he had the puck. He has six goals and 15 assists in the Blazers 12 playoff games after posting 12 goals and 23 assists in 39 regular season games.

    Veteran 17-year-old forward Cole Nagy played a physical game. He topped the Blazers in regular season scoring with 26 goals and 39 assists appearing in all the team’s 44 regular season games.

    Forward Josh Nagy had dangerous moments in the offensive zone.

Keenan Allan breaks into the offensive zone for the Blazers.

    He finished second in Blazers regular season scoring with 21 goals and 27 assists in 43 regular season games.
    Sophomore forward Carter Stebbings flowed to smart areas on the ice. He had 13 goals and 32 assists appearing in all of the Blazers 44 regular season games.

    Speedy Rhett Gibson brought a lot of energy to the contest. In 38 regular season games he had 17 goals and 21 assists.

    Head coach Scott Scissons always seems to find a way to help the Blazers hit another gear.

    Overall, the heart of this Saskatoon side can never be questioned. It always shows through.

Head coach Scott Scissons and the Blazers aim to force a Game 5 on Sunday.

    The Blazers have their backs to the wall, but they are far from finished in the SMAAAHL final. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see them return home to host a series deciding Game 5 this coming Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at Rod Hamm.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.