EBERLE TO THE RESCUE

Greg Harder, The Leader-Post
rPublished: Saturday, October 13, 2007
rWhile the rest of the WHL continues to wait for the Ice to break, the Regina Pats are breathing a sigh of relief that it didn't happen against them.

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For that, they can thank Jordan Eberle — again.

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The Pats' usual suspect scored his league-leading eighth and ninth goals of the season — including the winner 1:18 into overtime — as Regina edged the Kootenay Ice 2-1 on Friday night before 4,352 fans at the Brandt Centre
rRegina improved its record to 6-3-0-0 while the underachieving Ice fell to 3-8-0-0.

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"They're going to break out at some point and they're going to put some goals in the net," offered Pats head coach Curtis Hunt, who felt his own team was somewhat "fragile" after Monday's demoralizing 7-3 loss to the Saskatoon Blades. "I didn't think we were necessarily bad (against Kootenay), we just didn't have a whole lot of jump at times. We were cautious throughout the night. We're happy about the win. We'll move on and hopefully that'll put us to a higher place."

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After a scoreless opening frame, Regina broke the goose egg 4:07 into the second period when Eberle took a nifty hand-off from Michael MacAngus, faked goaltender Kris Lazaruk to the left, and fired a shot into the short side.

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Just over two minutes later, Pats netminder Linden Rowat stuck out his pad to rob Kevin King on a partial breakaway. During a subsequent man advantage, Ben Maxwell's shot from the point beat Rowat — but not the post.

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Shortly thereafter, Regina took a turn at being stymied on the power play when Tim Kraus was robbed by Lazaruk at the doorstep.

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Kootenay finally got on the board midway through the third period after Colten Teubert took his fourth minor penalty of the game. During the man advantage, Rowat stopped a shot from the point but lost the puck in his pads, allowing Andrew Bailey to poke it in from the side of the crease.

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When the game went to overtime, Regina's top-ranked power play had gone 0-for-5, but a high-sticking call on Maxwell offered a chance at redemption.

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Eberle took advantage, accepting a feed from Kraus and potting his second of the night by deftly stickhandling behind Lazaruk and tucking in the winner. Eberle showed some rare emotion after the goal, dropping to one knee and pumping his fist before he was mobbed by teammates.

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"It was a tough-fought game," noted the 17-year-old sniper. "This is a big one for us. We haven't been playing well in the third period. Although we gave up one (goal) I thought we played a lot better in the third and, going into overtime, it was a big goal so I got pretty excited."

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Eberle now has nine goals in just seven games. He missed two with tonsillitis.

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"He's a special guy," added Hunt. "That's not the power play we drew up at the end but three guys beat it around and then we let Kraus give it to Eberle and he scores. Even his first goal was just a tremendous amount of skill and awareness. He just gets better every day."

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The other key to victory was Rowat, who turned back the Ice with a 31-save effort. His team was outshot 32-27 and dodged several bullets along the way.

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"I thought we deserved a better fate," said first-year Ice head coach Mark Holick. "I liked the way we played. It's a hard way to lose that game, like that. I think it was accidental stick that got up. It's just a hard way to lose.

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"I think that was our best effort of the year."

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The Pats play host to the Prince Albert Raiders tonight before visiting the Moose Jaw Warriors on Sunday for their third game in three nights
rFriday's contest was Hunt's 216th as Regina's head coach, putting him into a third-place tie with Bob Lowes on the franchise list … Pats D Nick Ross dropped the gloves with Ice D John Negrin just four seconds into the game. It's a continuation of a feud which began early last season when Ross knocked Negrin out cold with a clean open-ice hit … Regina-born RW Cody Hanson made his home-ice debut after being acquired last week from Seattle … Pats LW Jared Jagow missed the game with a shoulder injury sustained this week in practice.