Stay informed with the LNN Daily Newsletter

Pats down Hurricanes 5-3 to take a 3-2 series lead

Apr 28, 2017 | 11:08 PM

REGINA –  The Canes came out of the gates in Regina with high energy and high hopes of bouncing back from the 6-2 loss in Lethbridge on Wednesday night. However, the team missed a huge power play, 5 on 3 advantage in the 3rd, to give the Regina Pats a one game lead in the Eastern Conference series

That Canes initial energy paid off as Josh Tarzwell hammered in his first goal of the series just 17 seconds in, assisted by Ryan Vandervlis. Unfortunately, Tarzwell wasn’t able to finish the period, after taking a hit into the boards at the 14:00 mark. He left the ice and headed toward the dressing room with what appeared to be an injured shoulder.

Back on the ice, the Pats fought back and evened the score at 15:30 on a shot from Josh Mahura. The period ended on the one all tie, with neither team showing much aggression and Regina ahead in shots-on-goal 11-10.

The second frame opened with the Pats putting on the pressure. But, three minutes in, the Canes had a power play opportunity.  Ryan Vandervlis took advantage of the set-up from Giorgio Estephan, assisted by Brennan Menell, and put the Canes ahead 2-1.

The lead didn’t last long, at the Pats returned with a power-play goal off the stick of Sam Steel two minutes later to again even the game. Then at 11:29, Regina’s Filip Ahl popped one between the pipes on a three way passing play, putting the Pats in the lead 3-2.

The Canes fought back and with four minutes left in the period, Egor Babenko nailed his 9th goal of the playoffs in a game tying shot assisted by Dylan Cozens and Calen Addison. The Canes worked the remaining minutes looking for a go-ahead goal.  At 16:10, Skinner had a huge save, picking the puck out of the air during a Pats onslaught. The buzzer ended the second period on a 3-all tie, with the Canes out-shooting the Pats 25-23 after 40 minutes.

The third period opened with a faster pace and the Pats getting the go-ahead goal at 6:25, off the stick of Dawson Leedahl. From there, the game peeled off a succession of penalties. At 8:44, the Pats’ Sergey Zborovskiy was penalized for cross checking and 30 seconds later Dawson Leedahl was out for high sticking. The penalties gave the Canes a two man advantage for 1:30 and a chance to pull even in the scoring. Unfortunately, the Canes resorted to too much passing and not enough shooting and the golden opportunity evaporated. Coach Brent Kisio noted the lost chance.

“Our powerplay had a chance to tie it up and we did not execute.”

In spite of the missed advantage, Kisio felt his team played a solid game. The Canes did outshoot the Pats 32-31.

With six minutes remaining in the final frame, the Canes Brennan Menell took a minor for ‘embellishment’ while the Pats’ Nick Henry was cited for hooking. There was a lot of action in the four-on-four but, no scoring. The hard fight continued as the period wound down, with the Canes pulling Stuart Skinner with a minute remaining. The end result was the Pats added an empty net goal for a 5-3 win and a 3-2 series lead. 

At game end, Canes Captain, Tyler Wong, felt his team played hard and out-played the pats but conceded there were some mental errors.

“There were a couple shifts where we lost a guy in the slot and that’s how quickly a game can turn on you and I think we have to tighten a couple things up but, overall, I think we played a good game and we outshot them tonight and that’s something we wanted to do all series long – we know Stu (Skinner) is going to show up and play for us and we just have to find a way to limit their key scoring chances – I thought we did a better job of limiting their chances over all.

Wong feels the team in confident going into game-6 and pointed out they have been in the same situation before, so they aren’t worried.

A very telling element of the game was the fact that Wong had become ‘public enemy number one’ with the Pats fans.  The arena was loud and the booing long whenever the Canes’ Captain got on the puck. However, Wong seemed oblivious.

“It fires me up and makes me want to score even more and it’s unfortunate that I wasn’t able to do that there, but, it’s play-off hockey and I play on the edge and the fans can do what they want – and I hope our fans repay some of their top guys and hopefully we’ll have a loud crowd on Sunday.”

Puck drops for game six at the Enmax in Lethbridge at 6:00-pm on Sunday (Apr 30) night.