Blades enter hostile territory with Brandt Centre faithful

Pats aim to ride energy of raucous home crowd

The Pats and Blades resume their playoff series in Tuesday.

The Saskatoon Blades won’t be taking any sledgehammers to the ice for the resumption of their playoff series with the Regina Pats.

Entering their best-of-seven WHL first round playoff series with the Pats, the Blades had the role of favourites having finished fourth overall in the WHL with a 48-15-4-1 mark and being rated 10^th in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The Pats finished sixth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a 34-30-3-1 record.

In the first two games of the series played at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, the Pats claimed a 6-1 victory in Game 1 on Friday and 6-5 triumph in overtime in Game 2 on Sunday. Pats 17-year-old phenom centre Connor Bedard was in on eight of the Pats 12 goals posting five goals, three assists and a plus-four rating in the plus-minus department. The North Vancouver, B.C., product was named the WHL’s player of the week for the week end on Sunday.

The series resumes in Regina with Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively at 7 p.m. each night at the Brandt Centre. The Pats home rink can be one of the toughest buildings to play in during the WHL Playoffs, especially if the Regina faithful believes their team can do something special.

Going into the atmosphere, the Blades will be viewed as WWE villains by the Pats faithful. With that in mind, Blades head coach Brennan Sonne doesn’t think his club has to do anything out of character.

Connor Bedard has eight points in two post-season games.

“I don’t think that is on our mind,” said Sonne. “We’re not going to be Triple H or anything like that – The Undertaker.

“That is my era – “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. I think we’re just going to go in there and try and be as gritty and competitive as we can.”

The sledgehammer was the preferred weapon of Triple H to use in the storybook world of the WWE Universe. Sonne prefers to see his squad display more of that playoff battle they showed in their overtime loss in Game 2, where they outshot the Pats 47-19.

“There are a whole bunch of different words you can use a lot of synonyms – grit, desperate, playoff mode, competitive,” said Sonne. “Whatever one you want to use, that is our main focus.

“That is the main thing we have to bring now. There are adjustments we need to make obviously special teams wise here and there. The main thing is us being gritty like we were tonight.”

The experience of what lies ahead isn’t lost of the Pats best player, who is also the best junior aged hockey player in the world. Bedard can’t wait to get on the ice to see the Brandt Centre’s post-season atmosphere.

Vaughn Watterodt has a goal and three assists in two playoff games.

“I’m pretty fired up,” said Bedard, who squad could be playing before a sell out crowd of 6,499. “I’ve watch some highlights and games from obviously the runs that the Pats have had in their great history.

“For us, it is a lot of guys that haven’t experienced that in our own building. We’re super excited for that. Our fans have been unreal all year, so we’re pretty grateful for them every night.

“We’re pretty excited to see what they bring when they come on Tuesday.”

Tuesday’s game will mark the first time the Pats have played at home in the post-season since falling 3-0 in the title game of the 2018 Memorial Cup 3-0 to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on May 27 of that year. The experience of playing at home in the post-season will be a new one for all the current Pats.

“It is going to be my first experience playing in a playoff game at the Brandt,” said Bedard. “We’re pretty excited for that.

“We’re focused on what we have to do and how we’re going to play. Obviously, the fans are always going to give you an extra kick when you are playing in front of them for sure.”

Blades RW Egor Sidorov and Pats RW Ty Spencer battle for the puck.

Pats all-time great head coach and general manager John Paddock has seen a number of memorable nights in the post-season at the Brandt Centre including the Pats journey to the WHL Championship Series in 2017, where they fell in six games to the Seattle Thunderbirds. The Pats topped the WHL standings in 2016-17 with a 52-12-7-1 record and had a huge home backing when they advanced to the second round of the playoffs in 2015 and 2016.

Paddock is expecting the atmosphere for Tuesday’s game will also be a memorable one.

“It will be loud and good,” said Paddock. “It is an old arena that basically needs to be replaced, but the seating capacity of it and how it was built is as good as there is in junior hockey.

“You can get 6,400 people in there in a tight area, so it is a great building to play in. It is a great building for fans to be in when it is a full house for sure.”

As for the Blades, Sonne said his side is just focused on getting a win on Tuesday to start extending the series. He said his team gained some belief with how they played in Sunday’s overtime loss.

Intensity between the Pats and Blades could continue to heat up.

“We’re just saying ‘that’,” said Sonne. “‘That.’ If we can outshoot a team 47-19 with that kind of work and compete, why would we panic?

“That is how I feel. Let’s do that. That is what we need to do, and we will be OK.”

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