Thursday 17 May 2018

Host Pats have a realistic shot to win Memorial Cup

The Pats are hoping to hold a lot of goal celebrations at the Memorial Cup.
    The Regina Pats are looking to be a nightmare for the sports purist.
    Way back on April 2, the Pats were eliminated from the WHL playoffs falling 3-2 in Game 7 of a first round series with the Swift Current Broncos. The Broncos, who finished second overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 48-17-5-2 record, advanced to capture the Ed Chynoweth Cup as league champions.
    The Pats went on a lengthy wait for the Memorial Cup championship tournament to start in Regina. As the host club, the Pats would experience life after death.
    On Friday, they play the OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs to open the 100th edition of this legendary as event at 8 p.m. at the Brandt Centre. When the Pats hit the ice, they will have gone a span of 45 days between games.
    Thanks to their lengthy rest period, the Pats are in position to be a migraine headache for every other team in the tourney. For the sports purist, the Pats had the easy route to the four-team tournament, because they didn’t slug it out deep in the WHL post-season.
    Regina isn’t your average team that bows out in the first round of the post-season.
    The Pats finished seventh overall in the WHL with a 40-25-6-1 regular season record playing out of the league’s ultra-competitive East Division. The clubs in the six-team East Division were so strong that the Saskatoon Blades missed the playoffs finishing sixth with a 35-33-3-1 record.
    Only six players remain on the Pats roster from their dynamic team that advanced to the WHL Championship series falling in six games to the Seattle Thunderbirds, but all six players are good ones.
Sam Steel had another stellar season for the Pats.
    Star captain Sam Steel had a sound season piling up 33 goals, 50 assists and a plus-27 rating in the plus-minus department in 54 regular season games. The other returnees include feisty centre Jake Leschyshyn, skilled right-winger Nick Henry and gritty left-winger Robbie Holmes.
    Josh Mahura had another stellar year on the back end leading all Pats defencemen in scoring with 22 goals and 47 assists in 60 regular season games. Liam Schlioler was sound as a defensive defenceman.
    Before the start of the season and throughout the campaign, Pats head coach and general manager John Paddock built a roster that was worthy of hosting major junior hockey’s championship tournament.
    Overage centre Matthew Bradley came to the Pats in an off-season deal with the Medicine Hat Tigers and piled up 37 goals and 42 assists appearing in all the Pats 72 regular season games.
    Overage right-winger Cameron Hebig came the Pats in a blockbuster trade with the Blades hours before the WHL trade deadline on Jan. 10. Hebig had career highs in goals (41), assists (49) and plus-minus (plus-13) appearing in 66 regular season games split between the Blades and Pats.
    On defence, the Pats picked up Cale Fleury in a trade with the Kootenay Ice. Fleury had 12 goals, 39 assists and a plus-17 rating in 68 regular season games split between the Ice and Pats.
    Czech import Libor Hajek was acquired in a blockbuster trade with the Blades on Jan. 9 and the standout rearguard 12 goals and 27 assists in 58 regular season games split between the Blades and Pats.
    The Pats are going to start 17-year-old rising star Max Paddock in goal to open the Memorial Cup. In 33 regular season appearances, Paddock posted a 19-7-2 record, a 2.90 goals against average and a .904 save percentage.
Max Paddock will start the Pats first game in goal at the Memorial Cup.
    Regina also has standout coaching under John Paddock, assistant general manager and assistant coach Dave Struch and assistant coach Brad Herauf.
    Last year, sports purists expressed their disappointment when the host Windsor Spitfires won the Memorial Cup after being eliminated in the first round of the OHL playoffs. The Spitfires fell in a seven-game series to the London Knights and became the first club to fall in the first round of a league playoffs and rebound to win the Memorial Cup. Windsor took out the Erie Otters 4-3 in last year’s Memorial Cup title game.
    Regina has the pieces to win the Memorial Cup as the host team.
    The Pats are hoping the history from Windsor a year ago repeats itself, which would make the sports purist feel even more ill.

Beware the beasts from the OHL and QMJHL


    Saskatchewan hockey fans might want to put the notion of a Memorial Cup championship final between the Swift Current Broncos and host Regina Pats on hold.
    After the Broncos won the WHL championship, a number of hockey fans from Saskatchewan started dreaming about the possibility of the Broncos meeting the Pats in the event’s championship final on May 27 and that was understandable. The last time two Saskatchewan teams participated in the Memorial Cup was back in 1989 in Saskatoon, where the Broncos downed the host Blades 4-3 in overtime in the championship game.
    Now is the time to remind everyone the Memorial Cup hasn’t been kind to representatives from the WHL in recent years. A WHL team has only won it all once in the last nine Memorial Cup tourneys with the Edmonton Oil Kings victory in 2014 in London, Ont.
    At last year’s Memorial Cup, the WHL champion Seattle Thunderbirds went 0-3 and were outscored a combined 18-3 in those contests.
    Until the WHL clubs can reverse the results on the ice, the teams to watch out for in the Memorial Cup have to be the OHL and QMJHL representatives. This year, the OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs and the QMJHL champion Acadie-Bathurst Titan are the representatives from Eastern Canada.
    The Bulldogs open the Memorial Cup on Friday taking on the host Pats (8 p.m., Brandt Centre). Hamilton topped the OHL’s Eastern Conference and finished third overall in the circuit’s regular season standings with a 43-18-4-3 record and advanced through the playoffs with a 16-5 record. The Bulldogs took out the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in six games in the OHL’s Championship series.
    Robert Thomas, who is an 18-year-old centre, was acquired by the Bulldogs from the London Knights and piled up 24 goals and 51 assists in 49 regular season games split between both clubs. Defenceman Benjamin Gleason quarterbacked the power play on the back end recording nine goals and 39 assists in 63 regular season games.
    Kaden Fulcher, who is a 19-year-old veteran, is the go to guy in goal for the Bulldogs posting a 32-17-6 record, a 2.86 goals against average, a .899 save percentage and three shutouts in 55 regular season games.
    Acadie-Bathurst opens play at the Memorial Cup on Saturday against the Broncos (2 p.m., Brandt Centre).
    The Titan finished second overall in the QMJHL’s regular season standings with a 43-15-8-2 record and went 16-4 in the playoffs. The Titan took the QMJHL Championship series in six games with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada.
    Centre Antoine Morand, who turned 19 in February, topped the Titan in scoring netting 26 goals and 50 assists in 66 regular season games. Defenceman Olivier Galipeau was acquired in a trade by the Titan from the Chicoutimi Sagueneens, and he is a talented offensive rearguard piling up 25 goals and 49 assists in 67 regular season games.
    Evan Fitzpatrick carries the load in goal for the Titan after being acquired in a trade with the Sherbrooke Phoenix posting a 26-12-5 record, a 2.90 goals against average, a .893 save percentage and one shutout in 46 regular season appearances.
    When Red Deer, Alta., hosted the Memorial Cup in 2016, the OHL champion Knights downed the QMJHL champion Rouyn-Noranda Huskies 3-2 in overtime in the CHL title game.
    It would be par for the course if the Bulldogs and Titan met in this year’s Memorial Cup championship game on May 27.

Monday was a great day for Skinner

Stuart Skinner lifts the Ed Chynoweth Cup.
    Swift Current Broncos goaltender Stuart Skinner might grow fond of Mondays.
    On Sunday night, Skinner, who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 200 pounds, made 31 save to back the Broncos to a 3-0 win over the Everett Silvertips in Game 6 before a sellout crowd of 2,890 spectators at the Innovation Credit Union i-Plex. The Broncos capture the Ed Chynoweth Cup taking the best-of-seven WHL Championship series 4-2.
    On Monday, Skinner signed a three-year NHL entry-level contract with the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers selected Skinner in the third round and 78th overall in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.
    Skinner was acquired by the Broncos in a trade with the Lethbridge Hurricanes. In 56 regular season games split between the Broncos and Hurricanes, Skinner posted a 30-21-4 record, a 3.07 goals against average, a .905 save percentage and six shutouts.
    In the Broncos run to the WHL title, Skinner posted a 16-10 record, a 2.20 goals against average, a .932 save percentage and six shutouts. Skinner’s six shutouts in one WHL post-season equals a league record set by Dustin Slade, who backstopped the Vancouver Giants to a league crown in 2006.
    On top of the contract, Skinner was named the WHL goaltender of the week on Monday and the CHL goaltender of the week on Tuesday.

     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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