The way the Regina Pats rallied in their season opener was a silver lining to coach David Bell.
Given that they lost, though, he’d rather his players take a different approach from now on.
“I learned that they have some resilience to try and come back in the game,” Bell told reporters Thursday. “But let’s learn to start on time, so we don’t have to chase games.”
The Pats will try to get after things quicker as they resume their WHL campaign Friday night in Brandon before playing their home opener Sunday afternoon against Swift Current.
Playing without 16-year-old star Maddox Schultz, the Pats fell 7-4 in Prince Albert to open the season last Friday. They trailed 3-0, 4-1, and 5-2 before pulling within a goal to start the third period.
“We learned a couple lessons of how to get momentum back, how to keep it, and what happens when you lose it,” Bell said.
The deficits, however, were too much to overcome fully.
Bell felt losing too many puck battles was a major contributor in the Pats’ downfall. That was a point of emphasis in practice over the last few days.
“We didn’t do it there,” Bell said, “so we did it this week instead.”
The Pats go from facing the defending Eastern Conference champions to a Wheat Kings team that’s rated ninth in the CHL rankings and third in our conference power rankings.
Getting their first win of the season before heading home won’t be an easy task for Regina, but Bell looking for progress.
“I want a response,” he said. “I want us to start on time. It’s going to be another test to see if we can do it. It’s just a matter of managing pucks.
“I love hard games. I don’t think there’s going to be too many ones you can circle on the schedule that are token easy games. Let’s get used to playing hard games and winning hard games.”
The Pats should be buoyed Friday by the return of Schultz, who missed the Prince Albert contest with an injury.
Schultz was on a line with fellow 2010-born star Liam Pue at Thursday’s practice. The former Regina Pat Canadians teammates are expected to be a feature pairing heading into the weekend.
“They love to play with each other,” Bell said. “They both asked to go on the ice early (Thursday) morning together to work on things. They know where each other is going to be on the ice, so I’m not going to fight that. I’m going to let them play together.”
