Regina Pats play-by-play man Dante De Caria lays out what the team needs to do to clinch a WHL playoff spot for the first time since 2023.
"Their magic number is at three-and-a-half. The Pats currently have a four-point cushion over Red Deer and a five-point lead over the Moose Jaw Warriors for seventh in the Eastern Conference standings," De Caria said on The SportsCage.
"With seven games left in the season, give or take, the Pats need to win, say, three games, so that's a total of six points. That would solidify them in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings."
Looking at the Pats upcoming games, De Caria speculates if they can shrink down the magic number.
"The Pats are trying to finish as high as possible. Six is kind of out of reach right now with Saskatoon holding that position, but the magic number is essentially right down to three-and-a-half, so that means a combination of a Moose Jaw Warriors loss and a Regina Pats win can move them up two." De Caria said.
"For example, Regina picks up a win Tuesday against Medicine Hat and then Moose Jaw loses their next game, that magic number would go down from three-and-a-half to say two."
Regina faced the Saskatoon Blades in the 2023 WHL playoffs and lost the series in seven games.
Recently, Regina faced the Calgary Hitmen on Sunday but lost 4-3 in overtime. Initially, the Pats were leading for the whole game before the Hitmen made the comeback in the third. Through the Pats’ last eight games, Regina has a 4-3-1 record.
"I want to say Calgary has put on some really big comebacks over the course of the season, so they're known to have these types of late comebacks. Now, did I expect, with eight minutes left in the game, that the Pats up 3-0 would surrender a 3-0 lead? No. You could see in the third period that Calgary was really starting to come on," De Caria recalled.
"I really felt like through 40 minutes of play, the Pats were playing really desperate hockey, and that's the type of hockey that we need to see them play down the stretch with seven games remaining in the season."
The next game for the Pats will be a road trip to Medicine Hat to take on the Tigers on Tuesday. De Caria will have the pre-game show at 6:30 p.m. with puck drop at 7:00 p.m. You can listen to all the action on 620 CKRM.
