Pats blanked 4-0 by Brandon

If there’s one thing you can say about the 2015-16 Regina Pats, it’s that they’re consistently inconsistent.

That was evident on Sunday as the Pats followed up a 4-2 win over the Prince Albert Raiders with a 4-0 blanking at the hands of the Brandon Wheat Kings.

“You can’t compare the games of last night. We were really disappointed in the effort last night. We were really disappointed in the result tonight. There’s some things to be disappointed about but there’s some things you have to give them credit,” said head coach John Paddock.

The loss is the Past fourth defeat in their last five games – with little consistency to the play on the ice.

One thing is for sure, this rollercoaster ride is going to have to even out if the Pats are going to have success come the playoffs.

“I think there’s hump that we got to get over. We just got to figure out how to put a couple of games together and get on a streak,” said Chase Harrison.

“We can’t win one, lose one, win one, lose two. We can’t be doing that. Especially if want a good spot in the playoffs.”

On Sunday afternoon, the Pats actually got off a good start, something they didn’t do on Saturday. Early, the Pats had quickly outshot the Wheat Kings by a 5-1 margin.

Then Sean Richards took a slashing penalty and everything changed.

“You can’t slash a guy’s stick. That changed the game. I don’t know how much it changed but it changed how the game was going for sure,” said Paddock, who felt his team passed up on other opportunities to keep the momentum going.

“We had one really good opportunity. Sam (Steel) doesn’t want to shoot, he looks to pass. He buries that in the back of the net (and) the game has a different emotional level.”

The Wheat Kings opened the scoring on that Richards’ penalty as Jayce Hawryluk scored his first of two on the day. Hawryluk’s second goal came later in the period as Brandon held a 2-0 lead through 20 minutes.

Around the mid-way mark of the second period, Tyler Coulter extended the Wheat Kings lead to 3-0 with a power-play marker of his own.

Reid Duke rounded out the scoring with his 26th goal of the season, also on the power play.

Instead of finding some momentum, the Pats are back at square one as they try to figure out how to put a string of games together.

“It would have been nice to get three points out of this weekend. Especially after that win last night, it would have been nice to get this one,” said Harrison.

The Pats are now off until Friday when they host the Saskatoon Blades at the Brandt Centre.

Sam Steel will play in the CHL Top Prospects game on Thursday night in Vancouver.

THREE STARS

1. Jayce Haryluck – the Wheat Kings forward scored twice and that proved to be enough for Brandon to secure the victory. Haryluck finished the night with three points.
2. Jordan Papirny – the Wheat Kings goalie stopped all 22 shots fired his way.
3. Nolan Patrick – the Brandon centre had a pair of assists on the first two goals of the game.

Attendance: 4,243