RECAP: Pats Depth On Display in Win Over Oil Kings
Final Score: Pats 6, Oil Kings 5
Record: 13-16-0
Standings: 5th-place, East Division
Regina, Sask. — An entertaining, high-scoring affair ended in the Regina Pats’ favour on Monday night, as they came away with a 6-5 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings.
It was an explosion of goals in the first half of this contest, with the Pats taking a 4-2 lead after initially trailing the game 2-0, and then jumping out to a 6-4 lead through 40 minutes. Regina held on in the third to claim the two points thanks to the 6-5 final.
Six different Pats found the back of the net in the victory, including three defencemen: Tom Cadieux, Ryker Evans and Layton Feist, plus forwards Drew Englot, Braxton Whitehead and rookie Braydon Barnett, who scored his first career WHL in just his second game. Feist recorded a four-point night, with all four coming in the opening period, and was named the game’s first star. Tanner Howe, meanwhile, extended his point streak to 15 games with a pair of assists, skating on a line with Drew Englot and Jakob Brook. Englot was the game’s third star with a two-point performance.
The Pats next action is Wednesday at home against the Winnipeg ICE.
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THE GOALS
1st Period
EDM 1-0 at 3:15 – Jalen Luypen (13), assisted by Braeden Wynne // Luypen carried the puck into the zone on the left side on a 2-on-1 and cleanly beat Kieper over the glove with a wicked wrist shot to open the scoring.
EDM 2-0 at 9:57 – Josh Williams (16), assisted by Carter Souch and Jalen Luypen (PPG) // A pretty power play goal thanks to some quick passing, as Luypen went down low to Souch, who quickly one-touched it to Williams in the bumper spot out front, resulting in a snap shot to the back of the net.
REG 1-2 at 10:40 – Brayden Barnett (1), assisted by Jakob Brook and Layton Feist (7) // Barnett tipped home Brook’s shot from the outside for his first career WHL goal.
REG 2-2 at 11:13 – Drew Englot (4), assisted by Layton Feist (8) and Tanner Howe (11) // Howe fed a pass from behind the net to Feist at the right circle, who tried to one-time the puck, but mostly fanned on the shot, however the ‘shot’ ended up being a perfect pass in front right to Englot.
REG 3-2 at 14:50 – Braxton Whitehead (4), assisted by Easton Armstrong (1) and Layton Feist (9) // Feist’s point shot was deflected by Armstrong and rang off the post, but the rebound left the puck in the crease, where Whitehead won the battle and knocked it in.
REG 4-2 at 16:50 – Layton Feist (3), assisted by Tanner Howe (12) and Drew Englot // Howe got free working his way off the right wall and slipped the puck across to Feist at the top of the left circle, who fired the puck glove side past Worthington.
2nd Period
EDM 3-4 at 0:49 – Josh Williams (17), unassisted (SHG) // Williams did this one all himself, working his way to the bottom of the circle and lifting a nifty backhander right to the top of the net.
REG 5-3 at 1:18 – Tom Cadieux (1), assisted by Ryker Evans (25) (PPG) // Evans held the clearing attempt in at the left half-wall on the power play and dropped the puck for Cadieux, who let a point shot go that had eyes, beating a screened Worthington over the shoulder.
REG 6-3 at 3:26 – Ryker Evans (5), assisted by Parker Berge // Berge threw a cross-ice pass in the neutral zone to Evans, who was waiting for the puck on the right side just outside the offensive blue line, and quickly spun into the zone immediately upon retrieving it. His speed caught the defender off guard, giving him a mostly free path to the net, where he finished easily on the forehand.
EDM 4-6 at 6:36 – Jalen Luypen (14), assisted by Josh Williams and Logan Dowhaniuk // Williams willed the puck to the net from down low with a strong net drive, which left the puck for Luypen to put home. Even though Williams made some contact with Kieper in the crease, the goal stood.
3rd Period
EDM 5-6 at 9:07 – Josh Williams (18), assisted by Jalen Luypen // Williams completed the hat-trick after he deflection on the backhanded hit Kieper and just barely rolled past the goal line.
FINAL: Pats 6 | Oil Kings 5
STATISTICS
SOG: REG — 28 | EDM — 34
PP: REG — 1/3 | EDM — 1/3
Faceoffs: REG — 32 | EDM — 27
GOALTENDING BATTLE
Regina: Matthew Kieper stopped 29 of the 34 to grab his 12th win of the season.
Edmonton: Alex Worthington allowed six goals on 28 shots.
THEY SAID IT
Pats Assistant Coach Ken Schneider: “We’re just real pleased to get the two points. That’s first and foremost the first goal. We played with a pretty young lineup tonight. We had all our young guys in the lineup, the twin Vaughan boys. We’re missing a lot of key players in our lineup and so I give our guys a lot of credit. Young Barnett here from Regina played a heck of a hockey game. He played a simple game, but he did a lot of things right. We scored early and we scored quite often. In the first period we had some success and of course when we turned the puck over, Edmonton still has a pretty strong team even though they’re missing some guys. There’s a reason they’re second in the division. So pretty proud of our guys for the effort tonight.”
3 STARS
Layton Feist — REG –1G, 3A
Josh Williams— EDM – 3G, 1A
Drew Englot — REG – 1G, 1A
UP NEXT
The Pats continue their busy week with three more games: Wednesday they host Winnipeg, Friday they head to Swift Current and Saturday they are home to Moose Jaw on New Year’s Day.
