The Regina Pats dropped their final preseason game to their Highway #1 rivals, the Moose Jaw Warriors on Saturday night 5-2.
After a relatively slow start, Eric Alarie opened the scoring for the Warriors on the power play at the 7:55 mark of the first period. Atley Calvert added to the lead for the visitors at the 15:55 mark, giving the Warriors a 2-0 lead after one period of play.
The Pats answered at the 6:10 mark of the second period with a goal from Zack Smith to narrow the lead to one, but Matthew Gallant responded with two goals for the Warriors in a span of 16 seconds later in the period.
Moose Jaw had a 4-1 lead heading into the third period, but Sloan Stanick narrowed the deficit to two for the Pats with his first of the preseason.
Eric Alarie finished off the scoring for the Warriors with five minutes left in the game, giving Moose jaw the 5-2 win.
Former Lethbridge Hurricane Carl Tetachuk got the win for the Warriors, stopping 32 of 34 shots, while Spencer Welke stopped just 24 of 29 for the Pats in the loss.
Pats’ Assistant Coach Brad Herauf says after beating the Warriors 4-1 the night before, the players may have believed this could have been an easier game.
“I don’t think that we were as prepared as they were,” Herauf said. “Obviously, they took that loss (Friday) night to heart, and they came out ready to play (Saturday) night. I thought that our guys just didn’t match their tempo and their speed.”
Herauf says after winning three out of six preseason games, he’s looking forward to starting the regular season.
“I think we’ve played a lot of road games here, and our practices have been tough,” Herauf said. “We’ve been going pretty hard with longer practices than we usually have here throughout the season, maybe that kind of caught up to the boys a little bit, but it’s all building blocks for the year.”
The regular season begins Friday night in Prince Albert as the Pats visit the Raiders in a 7:00 PM start. 620 CKRM will have the game live starting with the pregame show at 6:35 PM.
