The bounces didn’t go the Regina Pats way on Friday night at the Brandt Centre as they were defeated by the Vancouver Giants 4-2.
92 seconds into the game, a bad line change by the Pats allowed the Giants Connor Levis an open lane to the net. With the space, he managed to bury a shot past Pats Goalie Kelton Pyne for the opening goal.
Regina came close to tying the game shortly afterwards, both Sam Oremba and Tye Spencer hit the post on the same shift, keeping the score at 1-0.
Vancouver extended their lead when Tyler Thorpe’s shot banked off the skate of Pats defenceman Ty Gibson and went past Pyne.
In the second period, Jaxsin Vaughan delivered a hit to Matthew Edwards, that would spark a fight between the two.
It seemed like the tilt ignited the Pats offence, with Braxton Whitehead firing a shot off the faceoff to cut Regina’s deficit to one.
Vancouver restored their two-goal lead in the third period when Tomis Marinkovic took advantage of a turnover and sniped a shot past Pyne on a breakaway.
Whitehead got the Pats back within one goal, finishing off a give and go pass from Zach Moore, his 9th goal of the season.
It looked like Regina got the equalizer when Oremba slid the puck past Giants netminder Brett Mirwald, but as the goal horn rang through the Brandt Centre, the goal was immediately waved off as for the second time in the evening, Oremba hit the post and the puck never crossed the line.
London Hoilett finished off the scoring with his fourth goal of the season, making the final 4-2.
Moore and Tanner Howe each had two assists for the Pats.
Pyne made 23 saves in the loss.
Head Coach Brad Herauf said after a tough start, he liked the Pats answer.
“I liked how we stuck with it, we got ourselves back in the game. “
He wasn’t happy of how the Giants were able to get the goals on Friday night.
“I just disappointed with the goals that they were getting, felt they were mental mistakes that we talked about all week long, we were trying to clean those up, make it tough for their team to score and I felt tonight we made it easy for them.”
Whitehead said it wasn’t the Pats night, but it wasn’t all negative.
“No puck luck, bad bounces and stuff, I think there were some bright spots in the o-zone, I just think we got to focus on that and clean up in our d-zone.”
With the loss, Regina’s record drops down to 14-20-2-1. The Pats now trail the Prince Albert Raiders by seven points for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference after they picked up a victory against the Victoria Royals on Friday night.
The Pats will get an opportunity to gain some ground on the Raiders on Saturday night when the two teams meet at the Brandt Centre.
