Pats Open Strong in Victory over Blades

First Period
The opening ten minutes couldn’t have gone much better for the Pats as they scored four times by the 10:12 mark of their contest against the Blades.  Jesse Zgraggen opened the scoring just 41 seconds into the game when he blasted a one-timer by starter Alex Moodie.  Just three minutes later, Chandler Stephenson took a feed in the faceoff circle from Morgan Klimchuk behind the net and he beat Moodie with a wrist shot.  With the Pats on the powerplay, Dyson Stevenson accepted the puck in the face-off circle before measuring up Moodie and snapping the puck high for a 3-0 lead.  That goal sent Moodie to the bench as the Blades would send in Troy Trombley to try and change the home-side’s fortunes.  Dryden Hunt answered that with a great move, flipping the puck to himself and wiring the puck by Trombley for a 4-0 lead.  Saskatoon had a great opportunity to cut into the advantage when Nick Zajac was awarded a shorthanded penalty shot, but he was turned away by Daniel Wapple making his first start as a Pat.  Regina added one more marker before the end of the period as, on their fifth powerplay of the period, the Pats worked the puck to Morgan Klimchuk who had all the time he needed to pick his spot and set the Blue and White to a 5-0 lead.

Second Period
The Blades turned things around in the early going of the second period and would get on the board.  After Daniel Wapple made a pair of great saves on Cameron Hebig, the Saskatoon rookie wheeled back around and slid the puck under the Pats netminder on the backhand to cut the lead to four.  The Blades almost made it a three goal game when Nick Zajac smoked the crossbar in behind Wapple, but the puck skipped away from the goal to maintain the score.  The Pats hit a post of their own in the frame when Carter Hansen blew a one-timer past Trombley, but couldn’t beat the post to leave the game 5-1 after forty minutes.

Third Period
Once again, the Blades would put a marker up early in the frame.  Racing up the ice, Connor Sanvido and Logan Harland went back and forth before Sanvido finished the play into a largely open net.  The Pats restored the four goal lead late in the third on an amazing solo effort from Dryden Hunt.  The Nelson, B.C. product deked his way out of the corner before driving to the net.  His initial play popped into the air to the side of Trombley and Hunt batted the puck out of mid-air and into the net.  After review, the goal counted and the Pats took a 6-2 lead to the final buzzer and their third straight victory.  With the Pats win and a Broncos loss, the Blue and White find themselves just one point back of the East Division lead.

Next Game: vs. Kootenay – Friday, January 17^th – 7:00 p.m. (CKRM)

Next Home Game: vs. Kootenay – Friday, January 17^th – 7:00 p.m. (CKRM)