The Regina Pats wanted to gain all the experience they could through the WHL preseason, and they learned an important lesson on Saturday night.
After taking a 4-0 lead early in the second period on the road against the Saskatoon Blades, the Pats gave it all away before taking a 7-6 victory in overtime.
As a result, Regina caps the busiest exhibition campaign in the WHL with a perfect 7-0 record, while Saskatoon completes its preseason at 2-1-2-0.
Regina 7, Saskatoon 6 (OT)
The Pats couldn’t have asked for a better start, as Mathis Paul, Logan Henry and Zach Moore all scored in the first period to give the visitors a 3-0 lead through 20 minutes.
Henry then added his second goal of the game 5:37 into the second to give the Pats their four-goal edge. After Hunter Laing got one back for the Blades with 7:28 to play, Cohen Klassen made it a 5-1 Pats lead a minute later.
Regina ran into penalty trouble as the period continued, and that led to Saskatoon’s Kazden Mathies and Jack Kachkowski finding the back of the net on the man advantage two minutes apart late in the frame. Mathies then picked up his second of the game with 21 seconds left in the second, making it a one-goal contest.
Dayton Deschamps gave Regina a 6-4 lead 7:45 into the third, but Saskatoon wasn’t done yet. Mathies finished off his hat trick on a penalty shot with 3:04 remaining in the game. Only 30 seconds later, Kain Martinuik capped the Blades’ comeback with the game-tying goal.
It was all for naught, though, as Klassen scored his second of the night with 59 seconds left in overtime give Regina the victory.
Klassen had three points in the game, while Liam Pue added three assists, including one on the game winner. Moore and Deschamps had two points apiece.
Mathies ended up with a five-point outing. Mathies and Kachkowski had two points apiece.
Drake Mooney stopped 21 shots for Regina. Taye Timmerman had 24 stops for Saskatoon.
Brandon 6, Moose Jaw 2
The two teams found themselves in a low-scoring battle through the first two periods, with Carson Deichert scoring the only goal through 40 minutes and to give Moose Jaw a 1-0 lead heading into the third.
Kris Muissu scored his fifth of the preseason to tie the game with 1:41 gone in the final frame, but Connor Schmidt restored the Warriors lead with a power-play goal five minutes later.
Then came the rest of the game, and it was all Wheat Kings.
Chase Surkan tied the contest with 8:34 gone in the period before Brandon scored four unanswered goals. Cameron Allard gave the Wheat Kings their first lead at 10:06, Muissu’s second of the game made it 4-2 at 15:30, a Jaxon Jacobson empty-netter made it 5-2 with 54 seconds remaining and Ahmad Fayad wrapped up scoring with 21 seconds left in the game.
Surkan, Jacobson and Allard all had two point games, while Colin Grubb added two assists for Brandon.
Joffrey Chan was the winning goaltender with 17 saves. Jordan Switzer stopped 33 shots for Moose Jaw.
Brandon wraps up its exhibition campaign with a 2-2-0-0 record. Moose Jaw finishes 0-5-1-0.
Medicine Hat 3, Swift Current 2 (SO)
The Tigers were more than happy to put the shoe on the other foot in Shaunavon after losing in a shootout at home the previous night.
Ty Meunier picked up where he left off for the Broncos after scoring the game-tying and game-winning goals on Friday against the Tigers, as he opened scoring 1:48 into the second period.
Riely Pickford got that one back quickly for Medicine Hat, scoring on the power play only two minutes later, and Luke Ruptash made it 2-1 Tigers lead with 5:11 gone in the period.
That’s where things stood until the final minutes of the period until Brendan Rudolph scored his fifth of the preseason with 1:02 left in the second to make it a 2-2 game coming home.
Neither team scored in the third or overtime, and they were once again off to a shootout.
There, Jake Burmis scored the winner as Medicine Hat’s fifth shooter.
Hudson Kibblewhite had two assists for the Broncos.
Ben Meyer started for the Tigers and stopped 11 shots through the first half of the game. Cash Christie went the rest of the way and had 17 saves. Cal Conway went the distance for Swift Current and turned aside 41 shots.
Medicine Hat closes out the preseason with a 3-0-0-1 record. Swift Current finishes 2-2-0-1.
Up Next
The regular season begins on Friday night with Saskatoon at Brandon (7 p.m., ACU Place) and Regina at Prince Albert (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre). The Blades are then in Moose Jaw on Saturday (6 p.m., Temple Gardens Centre) and the Raiders are in Swift Current (6 p.m., Iplex) for their respective home openers.
