Bedard lifts Pats to Seventh Heaven with Game 6 win

Blades host series deciding Game 7 on Monday

Connor Bedard had a goal and three assists for the Pats on Saturday.

REGINA, Sask. - Connor Bedard is a miracle worker.

So far in a best-of-seven WHL first round playoff series, the Saskatoon Blades have to be wondering if the Regina Pats 17-year-old phenom centre is human. It might be accurate to say Bedard is not a god, but he appears to be somewhere in between.

On Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 6,499 spectators at the Brandt Centre with the host Pats facing elimination from the WHL Playoffs, Bedard set up the Pats first three goals and scored the winner in a 5-3 over the Blades in Game 6 of the best-of-seven series. With the win, they even the set 3-3 and force a series deciding Game 7.

Connor Bedard does a fly by after scoring for the Pats.

The Blades, who had won three straight before falling in Game 6, will host Game 7 on Monday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

During the six games so far in the series, Bedard has 10 goals, nine assists and a plus-10 rating in the plus-minus department. The North Vancouver, B.C., product has been in on 19 of the Pats 25 goals of the series.

“I think that might have been our best game of the series overall probably that and Game 1,” said Bedard referring to the Pats 6-1 victory to open the set on March 31. “It feels good to have that, but obviously, we know the job is not done here.

“We have to go in their barn Monday and get a win.”

The Brandt Centre faithful cheer a Pats goal.

The Blades entered the series as favourites having finished fourth overall in the WHL standings with a 48-15-4-1 record and were rated 10^th in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The Pats finished sixth overall in the Eastern Conference with a 34-30-3-1 mark.

In Game 6 on Monday, the Pats took a 3-2 lead into the third period. Just 64 seconds into the third, the Blades evened the score at 3-3, when star centre Trevor Wong tipped home a point shot from 19-year-old veteran defenceman Charlie Wright. The tally was Wong’s second goal of the contest.

Connor Bedard has 19 points in six post-season games.

That set the stage for Bedard to have another heroic moment. Just 55 seconds after Wong tied the contest, Pats star import defenceman Stanislav Svozil hit Bedard with a stretch pass to spring him on a break into the Saskatoon zone.

Bedard snapped home a shot glove side in Blades netminder Ethan Chadwick to put the Pats up 4-3, and the Regina side never trailed in the contest again.

“I liked our game basically from start to finish,” said Pats head coach and general manager John Paddock. “That doesn’t mean it was easy or we were far superior, because it is two teams that are obviously going to Game 7.

“That says a lot about the series. I liked our game from the start.”

Zackary Shantz scored a goal that caused controversy.

While Bedard had another sensational game, the other biggest memory from Saturday’s contest came after the Pats scored a controversial insurance goal with 8:36 remaining in the third. Pats left-winger Riley Ginnell had the puck deep in the left side of the Saskatoon zone and passed the puck across the face of the net to linemate Zackary Shantz.

Ginnell’s pass deflected off Shantz’s skate into the Saskatoon net to put the hosts up 5-3. The officials went to a view reviewed and waved off the goal saying it was kicked in.

Following that ruling, the officials elected to look at the video again, and after the second review, the officials ruled that Shantz’s tally was indeed a good goal.

Jayden Wiens scored to give the Blades a 1-0 lead.

“The refs told me that they called back down because there was a new angle, and then they couldn’t determine from that angle whether it was a distinct kicking motion,” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne. “That is what I was told.”

Access Communications was showing the game to their provincial network on television on their own channel. Michael Ball was doing the play-by-play work for the Access Communications broadcast, and he wrote on Twitter someone with the WHL asked to look at the replay angles that the broadcast crew had. According to Ball, after the officials saw the video Access Communications had the no goal ruling was reversed to a ruling of a goal.

Trevor Wong scored twice for the Blades on Saturday.

Sonne found it challenging to talk about the situation around Shantz’s goal.

“You’re asking me to comment about or have an opinion about things that absolutely really nothing to do with me aside from the fact that why did it even get into that situation to begin with,” said Sonne. “The rest of it that is for the league to decide whether that is the look they want or if that is the process they want to go through.

“It is up to management to have those discussions. Me, I’m in charge of why it even got there in the first place. I don’t really have a comment about it.

“I want to just focus on what I do.”

Alexander Suzdalev sets to snap home a goal for the Pats.

Paddock said he wasn’t sure what had happened during the reviews of Shantz’s goal.

“I’m just sort of guessing, but that speaks to not the inadequacy but of the video replay in this building or in the league,” said Paddock. “They are all supposed to be up to a standard.

“Obviously, something else happened. He (the referee) wasn’t going to listen to me. Something else happened, so somebody upstairs reviewed it whatever five or eight minutes again for the 14^th time, and they changed it.

“I don’t have an explanation. You would have to ask them, but no, that was strange.”

Pats mascot K9 works his way through the Brandt Centre faithful.

Ultimately, Shantz’s goal stood and the 5-3 score held up as the game’s final outcome.

The Blades actually opening the game’s scoring on a goal from hardworking centre Jayden Wiens at the 9:42 mark of the first. The Pats evened the score at 1-1 just over five minutes later when star import right-winger Alexander Suzdalev one-timed home a Bedard set up pass from a bad angle at the right side of the Saskatoon goal.

At the 5:04 mark of the second, the Pats jumped ahead 2-1, when Suzdalev received another pass from Bedard and snapped home a midrange shot for a power-play goal.

A couple of fans show signs supporting Connor Bedard.

Bedard proceeded to follow up with what might have been his best assist of the contest at the 12:45 mark of the second. Holding the puck along the left board deep in the Saskatoon zone, Bedard made a seeing-eye pass from that spot across the front of the Blades net to linemate Tanner Howe, who one-timed home a shot to increase the Pats advantage to 3-1.

“I can’t really put it into words anymore,” said Paddock about the magic that Bedard can make on the ice. “The assists were because he sees the ice so well.

“The play he made to Howie (Tanner Howe) for the goal there was no way to describe it. It was major league.”

Connor Bedard quarterbacks the Pats offence.

Bedard said his teammates did an outstanding job of burying goals on Saturday.

“When guys are open, I obviously try to find them,” said Bedard. “There were a lot of nice finishes from our guys tonight, so they make it easy when they can put the puck into the net like that.”

The Blades didn’t go away. With 2:26 remaining in the third, Wong wired home a setup pass from Blades star left-winger Brandon Lisowsky from a bad angle at the right side of the Regina net to cut the Pats lead to 3-2.

That set the dramatics in the third, where Wong tied the game only for Bedard and Shantz to score for the Pats to pull out victory.

Tanner Howe had a goal for the Pats on Saturday.

“I think today we were a lot more physical and played our style of game,” said Howe. “We didn’t let them get set up, and I thought that was huge.

“We played hard.”

Drew Sim stopped 27 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Pats. Ethan Chadwick turned away 15 shots to take the setback in net for the Blades.

Stozil finished the contest with three assists.

Sonne didn’t like the start his Blades had to Saturday’s game, and he is looking for his team to have a big response in Game 7 as they face elimination from the post-season for the first time.

“It (Saturday’s game) was not to our standard,” said Sonne. “I think the players agree on that.

The Pats celebrate their win on Saturday.

“Then about halfway through the second we started playing. You can’t play half a game. For us, that is our focus.

“Now, our family is on the line. Our season is on the line. It should be a level of competitiveness, passion (and) desperation that shows that.”

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