The Regina Pats lost the opening game of their three-game Alberta road trip, 4-1, to the Calgary Hitmen on Sunday at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Ewan Huet held the Pats in it against one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, stopping 31 of 35. After the Hitmen opened the scoring with under eight minutes to play in the first, Regina capitalized on their power play. Caden Brown whacked home a rebound to record his 100th career WHL point and tie the game 1-1 going into the second.
Carson Wetsch scored a power-play goal in period two to retake the lead. Oliver Tulk would score twice for the Hitmen, with one in the second and the other in the third to make it 4-1. Daniel Hauser picked up his fourth win with the Hitmen with a 20-save effort.
FINAL SCORE: Hitmen 4, Pats 1
THE GOALS
First Period
1-0: Hitmen at 13:36 – Sawyer Mynio (6), assisted by Ethan Merner & Chase Vallaint // Mynio picked up a pass in the slot and as he skated to the left boards his wrist shot eluded a screened Huet to give the Hitmen a 1-0 lead.
1-1: Pats at 16:51 – Caden Brown (14), assisted by Zachary Lansard & Reese Hamilton (PP) // The Pats had control of the puck in the offensive zone where Hamilton’s shot was stopped and the puck caromed back to Brown who was Johnny-on-the-spot and buried the powerplay marker to even things up at 1-1.
Second Period
2-1: Hitmen at 4:11 – Carson Wetsch (20), assisted by Connor Hvidston & Ben Kindel (PP) // Wetsch got behind the Pats defence and on his second attempt was able to chip it past Huet to put the Hitmen up 2-1.
3-1: Hitmen at 11:17 – Oliver Tulk (24), assisted by Ben Kindel // Kindel fired a stretch pass to the Pats blueline and Tulk was sprung on a breakaway and beat Huet to extend the Hitmen lead to 3-1.
Third Period
4-1: Hitmen at 5:24 – Oliver Tulk (25), assisted by Ben Kindel & Axel Hurtig // The Hitmen’s first attempt hit the crossbar and bounced out to Tulk in front of the Pats net and he deposited the puck into the net to make it 4-1.
THE STATISTICS
SOG: Regina – 5-9-8–22 | Calgary – 16-13-6–35
PP: Regina – 1/4 | Calgary – 1/6
THE GOALTENDING BATTLE
Regina: Ewan Huet (31 saves / 35 shots)
Calgary: Daniel Hauser (21 saves / 22 shots)
THE 3 STARS
First: Oliver Tulk (2G) – Hitmen
Second: Ben Kindel (3A) – Hitmen
Third: Sawyer Mynio (1G) – Hitmen
JUST NOTES
- Caden Brown notched his team leading 14th goal of the season. He has 13 points (8G-5A) in his last 13 games, with points in 10 of those 13 games. Brown also picked up his 100th career point.
- Zach Lansard had an assist and has points (2G-2A) in his last four games. He also has points (2G-3A) in five of his last six games.
- Reese Hamilton picked up an assist versus his old team, he has three assists in his last five games.
- Regina have lost all three contests to Calgary this season.
- The Pats drop to 12-24-4-2 while the Hitmen improved to 25-12-3-2.
COMING UP
The Pats continue their three game Alberta stretch when they travel to Medicine Hat on Tuesday, January 21, to play the Tigers. Puck drop is at 8:00 p.m. (SK Time). The Pats will finish this road trip on Wednesday against the Lethbridge Hurricanes. The Pats next home game is on Saturday, January 25 against the Prince Albert Raiders.
