Pats Pre-Season Continues in Brandon
Head-to-Head
The Regina Pats (3-0-0-0) continue the WHL Pre-Season tonight as they hit the road to face the Brandon Wheat Kings (0-0-0-0). It’s the first road game of the exhibition campaign for the Pats after they started the pre-season by playing on home ice for the Extreme Hockey Pre-Season Tournament. Tonight’s contest is the pre-season opener for the Wheat Kings who started training camp one week later than the Pats. In last year’s pre-season home-and-home, the Pats found themselves on the losing side in both matchups with the Wheat Kings. Brandon took the first contest in Manitoba 4-3 in the shootout before a 6-3 win the next night.
Lead-Up: Pats Go Undefeated in Extreme Hockey Pre-Season Tournament
The first year of the Extreme Hockey Pre-Season Tournament yielded good results for the hosts as the Pats were the only team to come out of the tournament undefeated with a 3-0-0-0 record. The Blue and White opened with a 9-1 win over the Moose Jaw Warriors Thursday night. They followed that victory with a third period comeback for a 6-5 triumph against the Calgary Hitmen. The tournament wrapped up with the Queen City Kids knocking off the Lethbridge Hurricanes by a 5-2 score.
Impressing Early
Rookie forward Sam Steel has Regina buzzing after the 2013 2nd Overall pick put up seven points (4G, 3A) in just two pre-season games. That mark has him atop the WHL’s pre-season points leaderboard.
Numbers
The Pats come into this evening’s contest with 32 skaters on the roster including 21 forwards, 8 defencemen and 3 goaltenders. Looking at some of the age brackets, the Pats have five 20-year olds, ten 19-year olds, five 18-year olds, eight 17-year olds and four 16-year olds still on the roster.
Goaltending Battle
The Pats carry a trio of goaltenders into the second week of the pre-season, all with WHL experience. Most are familiar with last year’s tandem in Dawson MacAuley (’94) and Daniel Wapple (’95) who each had 25 WHL wins last year. The third is Tyler Fuhr who showed promise in a call-up late last season. Along with his stint in Regina, Fuhr played 15 games with Vancouver in 2012-13.
Upcoming Schedule
vs. Brandon – Saturday, September 6th, 7:00 p.m. – Cooperators Centre (CKRM)
vs. Prince Albert – Wednesday, September 10th, 7:00 p.m. – Cooperators Centre (CKRM)
at Prince Albert – Friday, September 12th, 7:00 p.m. – Art Hauser Centre
