Showing posts with label Glenn Gawdin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glenn Gawdin. Show all posts

Saturday, 17 April 2021

Pats had epic night in 2017 series comeback win

Sam Steel celebrates his game opening goal.
For Regina Pats fans, April 17, 2017 marked one of the most joyful nights in recent memory to be supporter of the world’s oldest major junior franchise.

Before a raucous sellout crowd of 6,484 spectators at the Brandt Centre, the Pats faced the visiting Swift Current Broncos in a series deciding Game 7 in a WHL Eastern Conference semifinal set. The Pats scored twice before the game was five minutes old and rolled to a 5-1 victory.

The win allowed the Pats to return to the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship series for the first time in 24 years. The Pats - a franchise that was founded in 1917 - also erased a 3-1 series deficit for the first time in team history.

As the final minute of that Game 7 victory against the Broncos ticked away, the Brandt Centre faithful stood and roared the entire time. The cheers grew louder and louder and hit a peak when the time left on the third period clock elapsed.

Filip Ahl (#61) battles in the corner for the Pats.
At that moment, I was standing in the Zamboni tunnel behind the Pats net shooting pictures of the scene that was unfolding. A few of the old Brandt Centre staffers were still around from when I lived in Regina from 1995 to 2001.

Back in that time, the staff made the Brandt Centre feel like one of the most friendly rinks on the WHL circuit. That friendly feeling extended to that game day and even the present day with the new staffers.

During the 2016-17 WHL campaign, I felt I established a pretty good rapport with the staff at the Brandt Centre.

Connor Hobbs had three assists in the win.
After the third period clock hit zero in that Game 7 win over the Broncos, I remember one of the staffers opening the Zamboni door behind the Pats net and telling me in a fun tone to get out there on the ice.

From the ice, I remember looking up at the crowd and thinking, “Holy (explanative)!”

That was the loudest I’ve ever heard the crowd at the Brandt Centre. I took a moment to soak in that site of pure joy.

While Regina loves the Pats, the thought was imbedded in my mind that fate wouldn’t allow the Pats to have a moment like that. The Pats had won three Memorial Cup titles in their history, but the last came back in 1974.

They hadn’t been to the WHL Eastern Conference Championship series since 1993 until beating the Broncos in Game 7 on that night at home in 2017. I was always convinced that something would happen to derail a good Pats season.

In 2016-17, the Pats were outstanding. They finished first in the overall WHL regular season standings with a 52-12-7-1 mark.

The Pats faithful cheer on their team at the Brandt Centre.
For much of the campaign, the Pats were rated first in the Canadian Hockey League’s top 10 rankings and topped the final rankings that were released on March 22, 2017.

The Pats swept the Calgary Hitmen 4-0 in a best-of-seven first round playoff series.

All of a sudden, it seemed like Regina’s magical run would come to an end at the hands of the Broncos.

The Broncos took a 3-1 lead in the series, and Pats star overage captain Adam Brooks went down with a knee injury in Game 2 of the series.

Nick Henry was one of the Pats key players.
If the Pats rallied, they would have to win three games in four nights beginning Friday, April 14, 2017. In an outstanding major junior playoff encounter, the Pats stayed alive with a 3-2 victory.

If you went out on the Dewdney Avenue strip after that Pats victory, you would have thought the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders were going to the Grey Cup or had won the Grey Cup. That was how good parties were after that Pats second round Game 5 win.

The Pats were far from out of the woods. Game 6 would be played the next night at the Credit Union i-Plex in Swift Current, and the Broncos faithful were gitty about holding a Saturday night celebration likes of which that small Saskatchewan centre hadn’t seen in some time.

Just 2:27 into the second period of Game 6, the Broncos scored twice to go ahead 3-1. After those tallies, Broncos captain Glenn Gawdin broke in on Pats netminder Tyler Brown on a breakaway and the sellout crowd of 2,890 at the Credit Union i-Plex rose to their feet expecting another goal.

Tyler Brown keeps focused on the action up ice.
Brown stoned Gawdin to the disappointment of the onlookers. Had Gawdin scored at that moment, it likely would have been lights out for the Pats in the 2017 WHL playoffs.

The Pats scored twice late in the second to even things up and 3-3 and skated away with a 5-3 victory.

Two nights later, the Pats skated into a series deciding Game 7 with all sorts of momentum.

Just 2:19 into Game 7, Pats star centre Sam Steel popped home the rebound on a shot taken from linemate Nick Henry to give the Pats a 1-0 lead. Pats import winger Filip Ahl followed that up with a breakaway goal at the 4:57 mark of the opening frame and the “Pats’ Regiment” was in a frenzy after that tally.

Swift Current did have an opportunity to get back into the contest closing out the final nine minutes of the opening frame with three power-play chances.

The Pats mob Tyler Brown after their series win.
Brown stoned Broncos star winger Tyler Steenbergen on a golden opportunity in close and robbed Broncos import rearguard Artyom Minulin with a huge glove save on a rocket shot through a screen from the point.

The Pats proceeded to pull away with a convincing win from that point. Offensive defenceman Connor Hobbs had three assists and was a plus-four in the plus-minus department in the romp.

During that 2017 playoff run, that night was the only time the Pats clinched a series win at home.

Following that big victory, the Pats won the WHL Eastern Conference title downing the Lethbridge Hurricanes in six games with Brooks returning to game action. Regina proceeded to fall in the WHL Championship series in six games to the Seattle Thunderbirds.

The Pats salute their fans at the Brandt Centre.
The Thunderbirds took Game 6 of the series with a 4-3 win in overtime in Regina after erasing a 3-1 deficit in the third period.

The Broncos wrote a good epilogue after falling to the Pats in Game 7 in 2017. Swift Current finished second overall in the WHL standings in 2017-18 with a 48-17-5-2 record and went on to win the WHL title in that campaign.

Still, Pats fans will never forget that Game 7 victory over the Broncos in 2017. When that victory happened, the realization of a long Pats playoff run was better than the dream.

Could WWE provide clue for normal times, other notes

When the WWE tours again, is that a sign the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is over?

When the WWE does indeed start touring again, it will not be the sign the COVID-19 pandemic is either over or not. It will probably be a tangible sign that things are moving more to the direction of being normal.

The main driver of the sports entertainment company are the weekly televisions shows it produces like Monday Night RAW, NXT and SmackDown. A massive COVID-19 outbreak on the WWE roster would have a severe impact on the storylines that come out in weekly television programs, and those storylines build towards pay per view events.

WWE has made last minute adjustments at different moments during the past year due to positive COVID-19 tests.

For most of the last 13 months, RAW and SmackDown were filmed at an empty WWE Performance Centre in Orlando, Florida, or a virtual online video screen crowd venue set up the WWE calls the Thunderdome, which was held at Tropicana Field in Tampa.

NXT has been filmed at the Performance Centre since October in front of a virtual onscreen crowd and a small gather of fans. Before that, NXT was being filmed at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida without fans going back to March 2020.

Last weekend, the WWE had its first huge live crowds in over 13 months this past weekend hosting WrestleMania 37 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa this past Saturday and Sunday. The WWE maxed out the crowd they were allowed to have on each night at 25,675 spectators.

Before WrestleMania 37, the last major crowd WWE had for a weekly show was the episode of RAW that aired on March 9, 2020.

WWE wanted fans back at its showcase event in WrestleMania but hasn’t made public any plans to go back to touring full time or holding any other live shows.

WWE has moved its Thunderdome from Tropicana Field in Tampa to the Yuengling Center located at the University of South Florida in Tampa. The move was made due to the fact the Tampa Bay Rays, who are the main tenant at Tropicana Field, have begun their MLB season.

This past Monday’s RAW was filmed at the new Thunderdome location. The WWE plans to remain at the Yuengling Center while gauging when it would be prudent to return to a live weekly model.

In an interview with Joe Otterson of Variety for a story that went live on Wednesday, WWE president and chief revenue officer Nick Khan did open the door for the possibility of having more live in person events.

Khan said plans have been made and to stay tuned for announcements.

“But just know that once we’re back on the road, we’re on the road full time,” said Khan. “We’re not looking to do other one offs.

“Again, this was WrestleMania, and we felt it needed to be done for the fans. So look for news coming soon.”

When the WWE does return to touring, it will be interesting to see how that looks. The company could tour first in states in the United States that have removed a significant amount of COVID-19 protocols regarding large gatherings.

For a company that is used to touring all over the world, would touring in a handful of states equate to touring full time?

Outside of Khan’s quote, the WWE doesn’t seem to be in too much of a rush to leave the safe filming confines of the Thunderdome.

On Thursday, the WWE released 10 wrestlers including Samoa Joe, Peyton Royce, Billie Kay, Chelsea Green, Mickie James, Tucker, Kalisto, Bo Dallas, Mojo Rawley and Wesley Blake. The released talent was severely underused by the WWE.

If the WWE was going to return to touring any time soon, it would be hard to see all these cuts getting made.

A year ago around this time, the WWE released just over 20 people in the talent department. Those releases were part of the company’s initial reaction to a slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In current times, the WWE is still making major amounts of money and produces a massive profit.

  • On Friday, organizers cancelled the Regina Folk Festival for the second straight year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s event was slated to be held Aug. 6 to 8 in Victoria Park in the Saskatchewan capital city. Organizers do hope to hold some type of summer programming.
  • On Friday, the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings announced Doug Gasper will be the club’s new general manager. Gasper has been an assistant general manager for the Wheat Kings since 2019. He will replace Darren Ritchie, who is leaving the Wheat Kings to become an amateur scout with the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs. Ritchie became the Wheat Kings general manager in July of 2019. He will stay on with the Wheat Kings until they complete their current WHL regular season, which is being held for developmental purposes.
  • On Friday, the NHL’s Ottawa Senators announced they signed 21-year-old winger Cole Reinhardt to a three-year entry-level contract that will start with the 2021-22 season. Reinhardt had been playing on an amateur tryout contract with the AHL’s Belleville Senators. He has three goals and four assists in 21 games this season in Belleville. Reinhardt played four seasons with the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings from 2016 to 2020 appearing in 252 career regular season games collecting 75 goals, 66 assists and a plus-11 rating in the plus-minus department.
  • On Saturday, the WHL announced the Tri-City Americans have suspended all activities due to a positive COVID-19 test to a player. The Americans have had three games so far postponed including a Saturday clash with the visiting Spokane Chiefs. In a release, the WHL said it was working in consultation with the Washington State Department of Health regarding the situation with the Americans. Being located in the United States, the Americans situation will likely be dealt with differently compared to positive tests involving clubs located in Canada. The Americans last played this past Tuesday, when they fell 4-2 to the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, Wash.
  • Saskatoon products Emily Clark and Sophie Shirley are currently taking part in the selection camp for Canada’s senior national women’s hockey team in Halifax, N.S. The camp runs through to Thursday. The camp is the final opportunity to evaluate players for the women’s worlds, which are scheduled for May 6 to 16 in Halifax and Truno, N.S.
  • On Thursday, Danny Austin, a Postmedia sportswriter in Calgary, stirred the pot tweeting out a letter from Alberta Health dated from April 9, 2021 regarding the return of crowds for performance events. The letter targeted late July for the removal of capacity restrictions for performance events in Alberta. The letter said the targets were contingent on how the COVID-19 pandemic plays out including progress on vaccinations. There had been talk this sort of letter existed, and Austin posted it after he got a copy of it. The reactions in the replies went all over the place. The tweet is shown below.

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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Saturday, 11 April 2020

Hockey community mourns passing of Cave

Oilers system forward, Broncos alum left good mark on many

Broncos captain Colby Cave (#10) in a WHL post-series handshake in 2014.
    It was a piece of news that those in the hockey world know it would make a lot of people sad.
    Early Saturday morning, Colby Cave, a forward in the Edmonton Oilers system, passed away after suffering a brain bleed on Monday. The North Battleford, Sask., product and alumnus of the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos was just 25-years-old.
    The Oilers confirmed Cave’s death with a statement from his family. His death didn’t have any link to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that is currently raging havoc on the world.
    Cave had been admitted to a hospital in Barrie, Ont., on Monday, and he had to be airlifted to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.
    He was placed in a medically-induced coma on Tuesday at Sunnybrook Hospital and underwent emergency surgery with doctors removing a colloid cyst that was causing pressure on his brain.
    Cave, who stood 6-foot-1 and weighed 200 pounds, suited up for 11 games for the Oilers this season collecting a goal and dressed in 44 games with their AHL affiliate the Bakersfield Condors posting 11 goals and 12 assists.
    Almost immediately after his passing was made public, condolences poured in over various social media lines. Cave was one of hockey’s good guys, who built numerous friendships in the game.
    His wife, Emily, created a warm, emotional and heartbreaking post on Instagram including photos of her clutching Colby in hospital to say goodbye to him along with a heartfelt caption.
    They got married on July 19, 2019 and won’t get to celebrate a first anniversary together.






To my best friend & love of my life, Colby 🤍 My heart is shattered. The amount of physical, mental, and emotional pain I am in when I think about never seeing, touching, or holding you again is unbearable. You are and will always be my person, my hero, the greatest thing to happen to me. I never dreamed of being a widow before our first wedding anniversary. Although, every cell in my body is lost without you, I promise to continue to make you proud. You were the best friend, husband, doggy daddy, and oh how I wished to see you as a baby daddy. I’ll see you again soon, Colb. You’ll be in heaven meeting me with a warm wet kiss. You’ll be with me every step of the way. I don’t want to stop writing just like I didn’t want to stop holding you this morning at the hospital. You are my everything. You always will be. Thank you for now being the best Guardian Angel. Just as you ended your vows, I am going to end with one word, AGAPE. ✨
A post shared by Emily Cave (@em.cave) on

    Their Instagram accounts are filled with cute young couple photos of the two together. After seeing those photos, it is as automatic gut punch reminder that life isn’t fair, when you think about Colby’s passing.
    On Saturday, The Canadian Press caught up with Mark Lamb, who was the Broncos head coach and general manager during Cave’s career with the team from 2011 to 2015. Lamb, who is now the head coach and general manager of the WHL’s Prince George Cougars, gave lots of praise for Cave.
    “It’s just his infectious smile and that he was a great person to be around,” said Lamb from his home in Prince George, B.C., to The Canadian Press. “That’s the thing I remember about him most.
    “He was the type of player that could do it all. He was our leader in pretty much every category on our team. He was our leading scorer.
    “He was our best faceoff guy. He was just an all-around player, and probably, if he wasn’t the best two-way player in the league, he was right there.”

    Way back in the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft, Cave was selected in the first round and 13th overall by the Kootenay Ice, but he never played a regular season or post-season game with the Ice.
    He came to the Broncos as part of the massive Cody Eakin trade made on Jan.9, 2011. In that deal, the Broncos traded Eakin, who was their star captain, to the Ice in exchange for Ice roster forward Christian Magnus, four list players including Cave, Ryan Bloom, Jarett Zentner and Steven Myland, 1st and 2nd round selections in the 2011 WHL Bantam Draft and third round pick in the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft.
    Eakin helped the Ice win the WHL championship that season.
    Cave was playing for his hometown Battlefords Stars in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League and was in his 16-year-old season at the time of the trade. He made his debut with the Broncos before the 2010-11 campaign came to an end.
    He played in 287 career regular season games with the Broncos piling up 95 goals and 107 assists for 202 points.

    Cave was the Broncos captain in his final two seasons with the club, which were his best campaigns in the WHL.
    In 2013-14, Cave played in all of the Broncos 72 regular season games piling up 33 goals and 37 assists and a plus-20 rating in the plus-minus department. During his final campaign with the Broncos in 2014-15, Cave again appeared in all 72 regular season games recording 35 goals, 40 assists and a plus-three rating.
    Cave joined the Broncos at a time when they were rebuilding and trying to re-establish links in Swift Current and the surrounding area communities. He was a regular in getting out in the community to do that ground work.
    The Broncos made the playoffs in Cave’s last three years with the club. They had a strong season in 2013-14 posting a 38-25-3-6 regular season record and came up one point in the standings short of overtaking the Regina Pats for first place in the East Division.
    Sellout post-season crowds of 2,890 returned to the Innovation Credit Union i-Plex, which were vocally and enthusiastically behind the Broncos. It was the first time in a while engaged crowds had been seen like that in the Broncos home rink.
    In a first round playoff series against the Medicine Hat Tigers in 2014, Broncos fans followed their team to Medicine Hat to invade the Tigers long time old home rink in The Arena. The Broncos intro video for their home games in that post-season featured a number of highlights from Cave.
    The Tigers ultimately claimed that best-of-seven series in six games.
    During his final season with the Broncos, Cave was teammates with a sophomore 17-year-old centre named Glenn Gawdin and a rookie 16-year-old right-winger in Tyler Steenbergen. Both Gawdin and Steenbergen became key pieces in helping the Broncos win the WHL title in 2017-18.
    Following his time with the Broncos, Cave joined the Boston Bruins organization and would appear in 23 NHL regular season games with that club.
    The Oilers claimed Cave off waivers on Jan. 15, 2019. Cave finished the 2018-19 season playing 33 regular season games with the Oilers registering two goals and one assist.
    With the outpouring of support that has been shown for Cave on social media since his passing, it feels like he was destined to do more in the physical world. In the short time he was here, he touched and had a positive impact on a large number of lives.

Free Press columnist looks at 1918 Spanish Flu, other notes

    With the world currently battling the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic, Winnipeg Free Press business columnist Brent Bellamy decided to go back in time and take a look at how his publication covered the Spanish Flu pandemic from 1918-19.
    In some places in the world, the Spanish Flu pandemic continued to 1920.
    The Spanish Flu was an H1N1 influenza strain that proved to be particularly deadly. It is estimated it infected about 500-million people in the world, which would have been a third of the world’s population at that time.
    It is estimated the Spanish Flu killed 20 to 50-million people worldwide.
    Bellamy noted there were many similarities of what happened with the Spanish Flu back then compared to the COVID-19 pandemic of today. He put out his discoveries in a series of tweets on Thursday.
    Bellamy said the Free Press in 1918 noted New York City was a hotspot for the Spanish Flu, and New York City is a hotspot for COVID-19 in today’s time.
    He found out that in early October of 1918 a few cases of the Spanish Flu began to appear in Winnipeg without major headlines in the Free Press.
    Bellamy found a column in 1918 asking people to stay home in order to halt the spread of the Spanish Flu. In the current day, Canada as a country is observing lockdown measures to battle COVID-19.
    He found an article from October 11, 1918 warning of impending closures. Bellamy proceeded to show and article from October 12, 1918 ordering the closure of all public meeting places.
    That included the closures of schools and churches.
    He showed how the growing number of local cases of Spanish Flu were reported in the Free Press on a daily basis and how the Winnipeg media outlet kept an eye on what was going on in the rest of the world.
    There was talk in Winnipeg about flattening the curve of the Spanish Flu, which is a familiar refrain these days when it comes to battling COVID-19.
    Bellamy found a piece that universities were sending homework and assignments to students through the mail during the time of the Spanish Flu. In the current day, university students are doing work online in the face of COVID-19.
    In 1918 Winnipeg, there was a fear the Spanish Flu could break out in prisons and wearing masks in public was hotly debated. Those types of issues are occurring in the current day with COVID-19.
    There were stories during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic in Winnipeg about health care workers being most at risk. Those types of concerns are happening in the current day with the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Bellamy found an article from November 28, 1918 stating the shutdowns in Winnipeg over the Spanish Flu were being lifted.  
    Bellamy continued to document Spanish Flu developments in the rest of Canada and the world from the old Free Press archives. He quoted a Spanish Flu wrap up piece from 1919 stating 12,000 people in Winnipeg became ill because of the disease and 824 people died.
    Even though the Spanish Flu pandemic happened just over 100 years ago, Bellamy’s journey through the Free Press archives shows just how much history can repeat itself.
    Another similarity the research didn’t uncover was that there was no vaccine for the Spanish Flu during the years that pandemic was active from 1918-20. The first licensed flu vaccine didn’t appear until the 1940s.
    In the current day, there is no vaccine for COVID-19. No one is certain when a vaccine will be discovered for COVID-19 either.
    I pulled those nuggets of information from a documentary piece on the Spanish Flu created by the History Channel.
    It should be noted that the statistics from the Spanish Flu pandemic are estimates, because statistics weren’t well kept in some instances. In other instances, statistics for the Spanish Flu were under-reported in media outlets due to government control measures that were in place from the First World War, which was coming to an end in 1918 when the Spanish Flu broke out.

  • Over the past week, Saskatoon keeps popping up as a potential quarantine city to play NHL playoffs games in to complete the 2019-20 season. From what I understand, players from teams would be housed in a city and would play their games in front of empty arenas. I don’t know if this will come to pass, but it is idea that has been floated out there.
  • On Friday, Prince Albert Minor Football cancelled all its spring programs due to the preventative measures that have been enacted by various governments to combat COVID-19. The sport body is still taking registrations for its fall programs.
  • On Friday morning, ESPN reported the XFL has suspended operations and laid off nearly all of its staff outside of a handful of executives and has no plans to return in 2021. The XFL suspended operations on March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and officially cancelled the remainder of its season on March 20. The league is owned by WWE chairman/president Vince McMahon and Alpha Entertainment. The reboot was not the rowdy first version of the football circuit seen in 2001. The latest version of the XFL was operated as a new startup and had received lot of great reviews over the first five weeks of play. It appears theCOVID-19 pandemic might have stopped the rebooted XFL in its tracks, which is too bad.
  • It may sound crazy, but it is possible to like both the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders and Saskatoon Blades. The teams are big rivals and just saying the above statement will likely have some fans of both teams fall out of their chairs.
  • Saskatoon Blades captain Chase Wouters took over his team’s Instagram account on Friday, and it was pretty fun. He provided numerous posts on the story function from his home Lloydminster, which is located on the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan. He showed off his home gym, said how much he likes hear the Blades victory song “Tongue Tied” by Grouplove and showed a picture of his father, Scott, wearing #44 in a Team Canada jersey from Hockey Canada. Scott played for the Lloydminster Border Kings when they faced Poland’s National team in a three game series in Poland in October of 2001. Chase said he wears #44, because that was Scott’s old number. Scott talked about how fun it was to introduce the Blades starting lineup before a game this past season. Overall, Chase did a great job running the Blades Instagram line for a day.
  • It is a smart and prudent move to take a break from social media and limit the time you spend taking in information from news sites on various platforms. There is so much uncertainty and anxiety happening over the COVID-19 pandemic it becomes mentally unhealthy to spend too much time consuming information over those lines.
  • One of the most entertaining tweets I’ve found comes from Joe Pascucci, who is a longtime sportscaster and sports director in Winnipeg. He found a clip from an AWA championship match held at the Winnipeg Arena between champion Rick Martel and challenger Boris Zhukov. Martel was the baby face and Zhukov was the heel. John Ferguson, who was the general manager of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets at the time, was the special guest referee. Ferguson ensured the match was “fair” for Martel.
    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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Thursday, 24 May 2018

The heart of the WHL champion Broncos will live forever

The Broncos celebrate a goal from captain Glenn Gawdin, centre.
    REGINA, Sask. – They might have been running on fumes, but the Swift Current Broncos kept finding the emotional energy to keep pushing forward at the Memorial Cup.
    During their appearance in the CHL championship tournament, the Broncos showed the heart that allowed them to win the WHL championship this season. It marked the first time they won the league title in 25 years.
    The Broncos are responsible for the last three WHL championship victories by a Saskatchewan based club capturing the league crown this year, in 1993 and 1989. At the Memorial Cup, the Broncos were ultimately done in by the number of games they have played in the 2017-18 campaign.
    On Wednesday before a sellout crowd of 6,484 spectators at the Brandt Centre, the Broncos fell 6-5 to the host Regina Pats and were eliminated from making the Memorial Cup’s playoff round finishing last in the round robin at 0-3. Each Broncos setback came by a one-goal margin.
    Wednesday marked the 101st time the Broncos hit the ice for a hockey game in 2017-18 including action in the regular season, WHL playoffs and the Memorial Cup tournament. The Broncos played a record 26 games in the WHL post-season to capture the Ed Chynoweth Cup.
    Broncos head coach and director of player personnel Manny Viveiros said fatigue was setting in for his club at Wednesday’s post-game press conference, but he loved the battle his player kept continuing to show.
Colby Sissons created late excitement for the Broncos on Wednesday.
    “Our mistakes were I thought throughout this tournament were tired mistakes,” said Viveiros. “Our group is tired.
    “I noticed that coming into this tournament especially going into the first game and especially in that second game. Our energy level was very, very low. Normally when you are tired, you are going to make mistakes.
    “I am so proud of that group. It is a real special group, and (they) work real hard.”
    Injuries were piling up too. The Broncos lost star right-winger Tyler Steenbergen due to a concussion in their first game at the Memorial Cup, which was a 4-3 overtime setback to the QMJHL champion Acadie-Bathurst Titan last Saturday. 
    Star captain Glenn Gawdin had been playing with a separated should since the third round of the WHL playoffs, and Russian import defenceman Artyom Minulin needs surgery to fix a shoulder injury that he has been playing with.
    While all those things were working against them, the Broncos heart showed on Wednesday, when they refused to go away trailing 5-2 in the third period. A comeback attempt was sparked, when star Finnish import left-winger Aleksi Heponiemi scored with 5:38 to play in the frame to cut the Pats lead to 5-3.
Captain Glenn Gawdin piled up points while playing hurt.
    After the Broncos pulled netminder Stuart Skinner for an extra attacker, overage star centre Giorgio Estephan lifted a shot over the shoulder of Pats netminder Max Paddock with 2:49 to play in the frame cutting the Pats lead to 5-4.
    Regina appeared to restore order, when Czech import defenceman Libor Hajek scored a power-play goal with 1:37 to play in the third giving the Pats a 6-4 edge.
    The Broncos still didn’t go away at that point. Gawdin collected the rebound from a point shot taken by offensive defenceman Colby Sissons and popped home a power-play goal with 49.5 seconds to play cutting the Pats edge to 6-5.
    Swift Current kept pushing right up to the final buzzer of the third. In the dying seconds of the frame, Pats centre Matthew Bradley poked the puck out to the centre ice zone, and the Regina side began celebrating victory including the players on the ice and the coaches and players on the bench.
Broncos fans were loud and proud cheering on their team.
    Sissons tracked the puck down and fired a Hail Mary shot towards the Pats net. The puck went past an oblivious Paddock and defenceman Josh Mahura into the goal with 0.1 seconds remaining on the clock. Four Broncos players were pinned deep in the Regina zone, so Sissons potential equalizer didn’t count as the play was ruled offside.
    It was physically impossible for those Broncos players to clear the zone to prevent any play from being offside in that situation.
    With that said, Sissons never say die effort symbolized the resolve of the Broncos for the entire 2017-18 campaign, and that resolve almost allowed them to continue playing.
    The team’s resolve was shared by the club’s fans, who traveled from Swift Current and area in droves for the squad’s three Memorial Cup games. A lot of the supporters were farmers who took a break from planting crops in the fields to go cheer on their hockey team. The Broncos fans were just happy to see their team competing in major junior hockey’s most prestigious tournament.
    The Broncos fans provided one of the warmest moments of the event on Monday, when they gave a rousing ovation to Skinner after he received a first star award for making 54 saves in a 2-1 loss to the OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs.
Aleksi Heponiemi nearly sparked a rally on Wednesday.
    Swift Current’s story was so good that it would been nice to see it continue.
    Still, the Broncos gave Swift Current an area a season to remember. They finished second overall in the WHL with a 48-17-5-2.
    Steenbergen scored the gold medal game winning goal for Canada at the world juniors that wrapped up in January in Buffalo, New York. Of course, they had a memorable post-season run to capture the WHL title.
    The run included the “Miracle at the i-Plex,” where the Broncos overcame a 3-0 deficit to down the Everett Silvertips 4-3 in overtime in Game 2 of the WHL Championship series at the Innovation Credit Union i-Plex. The Broncos won the league crown in Game 6 on home ice with a 3-0 win over the Silvertips.
    The heart of the 2017-18 Broncos will never be forgotten in Swift Current and area, and it will always be a warm memory in the city “where life makes sense.”

Media arrive at Memorial Cup in large numbers

Media members converge around Broncos goalie Stuart Skinner.
    In an era where the mainstream media has been cut to less than skeleton crew levels in Canada, it was a great to see a large media presence at the Memorial Cup.
    The media riser at the west end of the Brandt Centre has been full for all games at the Memorial Cup so far. The media scrums around players have been some of the largest I have seen in 19 seasons covering major junior hockey.
    Of course, all the media outlets from Regina are represented, and a number of media staffers have made appearances from smaller Saskatchewan centres.
    There has been some representation from media outside the province including a reporter from Prince George, B.C.
    For the younger members of the media, you can tell it is a big thing for them to be at the Memorial Cup. It was refreshing to see that as the number of people that cover the major junior hockey ranks in Canada on a beat writing basis has shrunk greatly over the last seven years.
    The more seasoned media members have enjoyed meeting the younger media members, but they seem to really enjoy renewing old links with other veteran media members they haven’t seen for a while.
    Face to face contact among media members covering sports doesn’t happen as often as it once did. With the way life changes, there is always uncertainty if you will cross paths with old friends from the media world in a media setting.
The media riser has been filled at the Memorial Cup.
    One of the best sights came after Wednesday’s round robin game, where the host Regina Pats downed the WHL champion Swift Current Broncos 6-5. 
    Due to the game starting at 8 p.m. local time, many were fighting deadlines and were trying to get work completed at an hour that wasn’t totally insane. For 8 p.m. starts, it is common for media members to finally leave the rink at 2 a.m.
    To help each other out, media members were sharing quotes and facts to help complete work faster.
    The influx of media members has to be viewed as a good thing for those that oversee the Memorial Cup. At a lot of national championship sporting events in Canada, you are often lucky to get a maximum of 10 members of the sports media out at your event. Often you might see less than five media members.
    About 20 years ago, one of the ways a sporting event was trumpeted as being a big thing was from the fact a large number of media members covered the event. That practice has long been abandoned, because of the dwindling numbers of sports media staffers in Canada.
    For those that manage the CHL, they can take comfort in the fact sports media member still want to go to the Memorial Cup, and it has a lustre. A lot of other national championship sports events in Canada can’t make the same claim.

Steel equaled record with five assist game

Regina Pats captain Sam Steel, right, had a record Wednesday night.
    Regina Pats captain Sam Steel joined some elite company on Wednesday night in the Memorial Cup record book.
    The star centre from Sherwood Park, Alta., collected five assists in the Pats 6-5 round robin victory over the WHL champion Swift Current Broncos before a sellout crowd of 6,484 spectators at the Brandt Centre. Steel equaled the record for most assists in one game at the Memorial Cup dating back to when it started to be played in a tournament format back in 1972.
    Two others also recorded five assists in one game at the Memorial Cup since it has been contented in tournament format. Back on May 14, 1985, centre Dan Hodgson had five assists for the Prince Albert Raiders, when they slipped past the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 8-6 in a round robin game. The Raiders won that tournament held in Shawinigan and Drummondville, Que.
    On May 26, 2013, centre Jonathan Drouin of the Halifax Mooseheads recorded five assists in a 6-4 victory over the Portland Winterhawks in the Memorial Cup championship game, when the event was staged in Saskatoon, Sask.

    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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Wednesday, 23 May 2018

“Man of Steel” rises again for Pats in 6-5 win over Broncos

Regina eliminates Swift Current from Memorial Cup

Captain Sam Steel pushed the Pats into the Memorial Cup semifinal.
    REGINA, Sask. – The Regina Pats needed every bit of Sam Steel’s heroics as “the Man of Steel.”
    The Pats captain had five assists to help his team outlast a determined Swift Current Broncos side 6-5 in the final round robin game for both clubs at the Memorial Cup championship tournament on Wednesday night at the Brandt Centre.
    Steel’s effort almost wasn’t enough as Broncos captain Glenn Gawdin and Finnish import left-winger Aleksi Heponiemi pulled a Batman and Robin act to give the WHL champions every shot to pull out a victory before a sellout crowd of 6,484 spectators. 
    Gawdin had two goals and an assist, while Heponiemi had a goal and three assists.
Glenn Gawdin had two goals and an assist for the Broncos.
    With the win, the Pats conclude the round robin portion of the tournament with a 2-1 record and advance to play the OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs (2-1) in a semifinal playoff game on Friday at 8 p.m. at the Brandt Centre.
    The QMJHL champion Acadie Bathurst Titan (2-1) qualified for the championship contest of the Memorial Cup thanks to the result of Wednesday’s round robin game. While the Pats, Bulldogs and Titan all had identical round robin records, the Titan finished first and the Bulldogs second thanks to a tiebreaking rule that used a mathematical formula involving the goals for and goals against between the three clubs in their head-to-head games.
    The Broncos finished 0-3 in the round robin portion of the Memorial Cup and were eliminated from making the playoff round of the CHL championship tournament.
Aleksi Heponiemi had a goal and three assists for the Broncos.
    Swift Current lost all three of its games at the Memorial Cup by a one-goal margin. The Broncos had finished second overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 48-17-5-2 mark.
    “They (the Broncos) are just a really good team,” said Steel. “They have a lot of heart to fight back.
    “We saw that tonight. We played a good game, got up and we knew they were going to have a push. It was good.”
    Steel helped the Pats go ahead 1-0 at the 7:36 mark of the first period, while working on the power play. The Sherwood Park, Alta., product found linemate Nick Henry with a backdoor pass in the left slot, and Henry fired home his first of three goals on the night.
    The Pats extended their lead to 2-0 at the 10:29 mark of the third working on another power play.
Left-winger Nick Henry had a hat trick for the Pats.
    Steel passed the puck from the right boards to linemate Cameron Hebig at the left post of the Swift Current goal, and Hebig redirected the puck into the net to give Regina a two-goal edge.
    At that point, the goals came at a rapid pace. Gawdin netted his first of the night at the 11:46 mark of the second to cut the Pats lead to 2-1. Steel set up Henry for his second goal of the contest at the 16:09 mark of the second, while Regina was short-handed to make the score 3-1 in the Pats favour.
    Just 23 seconds after Henry’s short-handed marker, Beck Malenstyn scored a power-play goal for Swift Current to cut Regina’s edge to 3-2.
Broncos D Artyom Minulin turns the corner on Pats RW Cameron Hebig.
    The Pats extended their lead to 4-2, when Steel found Henry with a crazy pass across the face of the Broncos goal. Henry fired his third tally of the night into the open left side of the net.
    “I just had a couple of good passes and guys were putting it in,” said Steel. “They were finding the right spots.
    “It is good to chip in. We got the win, and that is the most important thing. I’m just focused on getting a championship here.”
    The Pats appeared to seal the game away, when left-winger Bryce Platt scored at the 10:43 mark of the third period to put Regina up 5-2.
Libor Hajek scored the winning goal for the Pats.
    The Broncos fought back again. Heponiemi scored at the 14:22 mark of third, and Giorgio Estephan flipped a close in shot over Pats netminder Max Paddock at the 17:11 mark of the third to cut the Regina lead to 5-4. Estephan scored his goal after the Broncos pulled netminder Stuart Skinner for an extra attacker.
    With 2:12 to play in the third, the Broncos were penalized for too many men during a mix up, when they tried to pull Skinner again for an extra attacker. The extra attacker jumped on to the ice, while Skinner froze on his way to the Swift Current bench.
    On the ensuing power play, Steel got the puck to Czech import defenceman Libor Hajek. Hajek skated low slot to the left side of the Swift Current goal and put a shot past Skinner to give the Pats a 6-4 lead with 1:37 to play.
    Just as the Pats faithful were heavy in their celebrations, Gawdin potted his second of the contest with 49.5 seconds to play in the third to cut the Pats edge to 6-5. Gawdin’s goal came with the Broncos working on the power play.
    At that point, the sizable contingent of Broncos fans in attendance roared louder than they had at any point in the game.
The Pats celebrate Libor Hajek’s winning goal.
    In the final seconds, the Pats had a couple of big shot blocks, which helped preserve victory.
Paddock made 26 stops to pick up the win in goal for the Pats. Skinner turned away 22 shots to take the setback in goal for the Broncos.
    Way back on April 2, the Broncos knocked the Pats out of the WHL playoffs taking Game 7 of a first round series 3-2 at the Innovation Credit Union i-Plex in Swift Current. Steel said the Pats expected a big battle.
    “We knew what was on the line,” said Steel. “We knew these guys knocked us out.
    “We knew they were a really good team. We came out hungry.”
    Pats head coach and general manager John Paddock was pleased with Steel’s product on Wednesday, and the veteran bench boss said he was impressed with how Steel ensures he always ready to play.
    “He does everything he possibly can to prepare himself to play a game in practice,” said Paddock. “I think it relates a lot to his upbringing.
The fans at the Brandt Centre salute the Pats after their win.
    “He is extremely skilled. You just never have to worry about him. That is a really good compliment for a player when you don’t have to worry about him being ready to play.”
    Now the Pats look forward to playing the Bulldogs. Regina beat Hamilton 3-2 in the round robin clash between the two sides to open the Memorial Cup back on May 18. Henry scored the winning goal in that contest with 32.6 seconds to play in the third period.
    “We heard they weren’t too happy with their play,” said Steel, who leads all players in scoring at the Memorial Cup with one goal and 10 assists. “We expect a better performance out of them.
    “We have to be prepared for it and just come out and lay it all on the line.”

Stanley Cup pays a visit, other notes

Broncos supporters are picture with the Stanley Cup and Memorial Cup.
    Two of hockey’s biggest trophies were the centre of attention at Fanfest on Wednesday.
    The Stanley Cup made a visit to the Memorial Cup tournament, and fans could have their pictures taken with it and the Memorial Cup at the same time. It was a rare opportunity to see the biggest prize in professional hockey and major junior hockey at the same time.
    There was a pretty healthy lineup of fans willing to see both trophies in the 75 minutes leading up to Wednesday’s contest. With the final round robin clash featuring the two Saskatchewan entries at the Memorial Cup, fans wearing apparel of the WHL champion Swift Current Broncos and the host Regina Pats dominated the lineup of people waiting to have their pictures taken with the two iconic trophies.
  • During the press conference following Swift Current’s elimination from the tournament on Wednesday, Broncos head coach and director of player personnel Manny Viveiros said the club’s star right-winger Tyler Steenbergen suffered a concussion in the team’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan last Saturday. Steenbergen missed the Broncos last two round robin games. Viveiros said Broncos captain Glenn Gawdin has been playing with a separated shoulder since the third round of the WHL post-season and Russian import defenceman Artyom Minulin is going to have shoulder surgery in the off-season.
  • Including play in the regular season, WHL playoffs and the Memorial Cup tournament, the Broncos took the ice for 101 games in 2017-18.
  • The round robin portion of the Memorial Cup was extremely competitive as five of the six games were decided by a one-goal margin. The one contest that wasn’t decided by a one-goal margin came last Sunday, when the Acadie-Bathurst Titan downed the Pats 8-6 with the aid of an empty-net goal.
  • Bulldogs 19-year-old netminder Kaden Fulcher tops all goalies at the Memorial Cup with the lowest goals against average at 2.01 and the highest save percentage at .931. Fulcher is the only starting puck stopper to have a goals against average that is under three goals allowed per game.
  • The annual Memorial Cup tournament brings together people from all over the hockey world. On Monday, I got to visit veteran junior hockey broadcaster Peter Loubardias, Swift Current Broncos athletic trainer Jamie LeBlanc, Regina Pats athletic trainer Greg Mayer and Prince Albert Raiders athletic trainer Duane Bartley at the same time. All four are great people, and you felt like you were hanging out with the cool kids when you are around them.
    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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Friday, 18 May 2018

Oh my Gawdin! – Captain is the heart and soul of the Broncos

Glenn Gawdin celebrates a playoff goal for the Broncos.
    You can’t put a dollar figure on the street cred Glenn Gawdin has earned in the WHL.
    The overage centre has been a career member of the Swift Current Broncos having been selected by the team in the first round and fifth overall in the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft. The Richmond, B.C., product has played in five complete regular seasons with the Broncos piling up 126 goals, 187 assists and a plus-69 rating in the plus-minus department in 312 regular season games.
    As a 16-year-old rookie in 2013-14, Gawdin, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 186 pounds, experienced a good campaign with the Broncos helping them compile a 38-25-3-6 regular season record before falling to the Medicine Hat Tigers in six games in a best-of-seven first round series. 
    After helping the Broncos make the post-season again as a 17-year-old sophomore, Gawdin experienced more of a down time with the Broncos as an 18-year-old, when the team missed the playoffs with a 24-38-7-3 record in the 2015-16 campaign.
    Between those good and bad times, his effort level never lapsed.
    Those times made the past two seasons that much more sweet. Gawdin became the Broncos captain near the start of his 19-year-old season, and the team rose to heights that haven’t been seen in Swift Current for about 15 years.
    Centring a line with star right-winger Tyler Steenbergen and dynamic Finnish left-winger Aleksi Heponiemi, Gawdin was cemented in the heart of creating the Broncos new good times.
    The Broncos posted a 39-23-4-6 record in the 2016-17 regular season and beat the Moose Jaw Warriors in a tough seven game series in the first round of the playoffs. In the second round, the Broncos took a 3-1 series lead on the Regina Pats before the Pats rallied for three straight wins for a 4-3 series victory.
Glenn Gawdin was the WHL playoff MVP.
    Gawdin piled up 26 goals and 33 assists in 52 regular season games and six goals and five assists in 11 playoff games in that campaign.
    Fans in Swift Current treated the 2016-17 season as exciting, memorable and a high point for the team. Little did they know, Gawdin and his guys were about to take them on an even better ride.
    In 2017-18, the Broncos rose to the status of being one of the powerhouse clubs in the WHL. They finished second overall in the circuit’s regular season standings with a 48-17-5-2 record.
    Swift Current battled through a quartet of tough teams in the playoffs. The Broncos took down the Memorial Cup hosting Pats in seven games in the first round, the Moose Jaw Warriors in seven games in the second round, the Lethbridge Hurricanes in six games in the Eastern Conference Championship series and the Everett Silvertips in six games in the WHL Championship series.
    Gawdin finished second in WHL regular season scoring piling up 56 goals, 69 assists and a plus-61 rating in 67 games. In the 26 contests the Broncos played in the WHL playoffs, Gawdin netted 14 goals, 18 assists and a plus-10 rating being named the MVP of the circuit’s post-season.
    He came through in the clutch delivering eight game-winning goals in the regular season and four game-winning goals in the post-season. His signature moment came in Game 3 of the WHL Championship series netting a hat trick in a 3-2 overtime win for the Broncos over the Silvertips in Everett on May 8.
    Steenbergen and Heponiemi both had memorable campaigns playing alongside Gawdin. Steenbergen had 47 goals and 55 assists in 56 regular season games and 12 goals and 15 assists in the Broncos 26 post-season contests.
    Heponiemi finished third in WHL regular season scoring piling up 28 goals and 90 assists in 57 regular season games. In the Broncos 26 playoff games, Heponiemi had five goals and 25 assists.
Glenn Gawdin raises the Ed Chynoweth Cup.
    The trio of Gawdin, Steenbergen and Heponiemi will go down as one of the greatest lines in the history of the Broncos and the WHL.
    Away from the game, Gawdin always represented the Broncos with class out in the community and in the media.
    Broncos head coach and director of player personnel Manny Viveiros said Gawdin was a poster child for the WHL, a wonderful young man and an incredible ambassador for the league.
Truer words have never been spoken.
    Last November, Gawdin signed a three-year NHL entry-level contract with the Calgary Flames. While he has an exciting professional opportunity, Gawdin can depart from the Broncos on a dream high.
    On Saturday, the Broncos begin play at the Memorial Cup tournament in Regina taking on the QMJHL champion Acadie-Bathurst Titan (2 p.m., Brandt Centre). The Broncos won their only Memorial Cup as CHL champions back in 1989. 
    If Gawdin can have a few more special games to help the Broncos capture the Memorial Cup again, he will always be the toast of Swift Current.

Steenbergen notes bigger significance of Broncos name

Tyler Steenbergen breaks up ice for the Broncos.
    Tyler Steenbergen is proud to be a career member of the Swift Current Broncos, but he noted his club is being driven due to his club’s nickname.
    Of course, the Swift Current WHL franchise shares the same team nickname as the junior A Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
    On April 6, the bus that was carrying the Humboldt Broncos to play a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff game in Nipawin was involved in a collision with a semi-truck just north of Tisdale. The unthinkable event resulted in the deaths of 16 players and team personnel.
    The Humboldt Broncos bus accident hits really close to home for the community of Swift Current. The Swift Current Broncos suffered through a single-vehicle team bus crash on December 30, 1986 resulting the deaths of four players. The Swift Current bus flew off the highway having hit a patch of black ice shortly after leaving town on route to a road game in Regina to play the Pats.
    Steenbergen, who is the star 19-year-old right-winger with the Swift Current Broncos, knows how many links many people in the hockey community have to those that were on the Humboldt Broncos bus that day. He realizes everyone is trying to do their part to help the Humboldt club.
    After Swift Current Broncos won the WHL Championship series on Sunday with a 3-0 win over the Everett Silvertips before a sellout crowd of 2,890 spectators at the Innovation Credit Union i-Plex in Swift Current, Steenbergen was asked what the win meant to him being a career member of the Broncos and thoughts of Humboldt’s SJHL franchise inevitably came to mind.
    “It is pretty special,” said Steenbergen, who has played four complete seasons with the Swift Current Broncos. “To hold the name as the Broncos, it is a thing we have taken huge since the (Humboldt bus) crash and everything.
    “I think moving forward we’re doing it all for them. I think a lot of teams are going to be doing that. At the end of the day, we just have to play our game and the best will come.”
A Swift Current fan displays a sign supporting two Broncos teams.
    The Swift Current club has two big links to the Humboldt club. Swift Current Broncos sales and events manager Ryan Gobeil’s younger brother, Morgan, was a Humboldt Broncos defenceman that was badly injured in the Humboldt bus crash. Ryan had Morgan’s heartbeat tattooed on his arm.
    Swift Current Broncos star overage centre Matteo Gennaro lost best friend Stephen Wack, who died in the Humboldt bus crash and was one of the team’s defencemen.
    The two Broncos teams have other eerie similarities that Steenbergen was likely not aware of. The Humboldt Broncos were born in 1970 as the junior A affiliate of the Swift Current Broncos. From that link, the Humboldt franchise gained its name and the green and gold colour scheme that used to also be worn by the Swift Current franchise.
    In the 1986-87 hockey season when the Swift Current Broncos bus crashed occurred, the Humboldt Broncos won the SJHL title, captured the Anavet Cup and played in the junior A national championship tournament at home. Humboldt fell in the Centennial Cup tournament final 5-2 to the Richmond Sockeyes from British Columbia.
    The Humboldt Broncos were the defending SJHL champions from the 1985-86 campaign.
    After the crash of the Humboldt Broncos bus this season, the Swift Current Broncos moved on to capture their first WHL title in 25 years and earn the right to play for the Memorial Cup in the CHL’s championship tournament in Regina.
    Could fate be on the side of the Swift Current Broncos? We might find out when the Memorial Cup championship game rolls around on May 27.

Henry delivers Pats to victory in Memorial Cup opener

Nick Henry scored the game-winning goal for the Pats.
    The host Regina Pats rediscovered some of their post-season magic from a year ago in Friday’s opening game of the Memorial Cup tournament.
    Locked in a 2-2 tie with the OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs, Pats left-winger Nick Henry popped home the rebound of a shot from Czech import defenceman Libor Hajek with 32.6 seconds to play in the third period to deliver the host side to a 3-2 victory before 5,678 spectators at the Brandt Centre, which seats 6,484 spectators.
    The Bulldogs held a 1-0 lead after the first period on a goal by star centre Robert Thomas. Pats star captain Sam Steel tied things up at 1-1 just 19 seconds into the second period.
    The Bulldogs went ahead 2-1 on a snipe from right-winger Marian Studenic at the 13:14 mark of the second. Pats offensive defenceman Josh Mahura drove home a long range drive at the 15:30 mark of the second to even things up at 2-2.
    That set the stage for Henry’s winner at the end of the frame.
    Max Paddock, who is a 17-year-old rookie, made 31 stops and many of those were big ones to pick up the win in goal for the Pats. Kaden Fulcher turned away 27 shots to take the setback in goal for the Bulldogs.
    The Pats went a span of 45 days without playing a game before Friday’s contest. They last hit the ice on April 2, when they dropped a 3-2 decision in Game 7 of a best-of-seven first round WHL playoff series with the Broncos in Swift Current. The Broncos moved on to win the WHL title.
    In the 2016-17 campaign, the Pats made it to the WHL Championship series and fell 4-2 in the best-of-seven set to the Seattle Thunderbirds.
    The Memorial Cup continues on Saturday with the Broncos taking on the Acadie-Bathurst Titan at 2 p.m. at the Brandt Centre.

    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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