Pats surge past Wheat Kings 5-2

Fans at the Brandt Centre saw a completely different kind of game Sunday afternoon than they did Friday evening. 

The Pats struggled to find their groove against Medicine Hat on Friday, but jumped right back into form Sunday afternoon, fresh off a win in Swift Current on Saturday night. 

“I think one of our issues lately is we have been a really inconsistent team,” Pats Captain Adam Brooks explained. “We’ve played really well at times and then other times haven’t played all that great and have given up leads and just not played a complete 60 minute game.”

That was not the case Sunday, however.

Brandon was first on the board with less than a minute left in the first courtesy of Tyler Coulter, but the second period was all Pats. 

Josh Mahura scored his second goal in a Pats jersey two minutes into the period to tie the game up. Later on in the period, Dawson Leedahl and Austin Wagner scored 36 seconds apart to bring the Pats up 3-1. 

Leedahl scored one more at the end of the second to secure a 4-1 lead for the Pats. 

Each team added one in the third period, leaving the final score 5-2. 

Head coach John Paddock said the team spent time on the weekend looking at tape from Friday’s loss to show his players what needed to be worked on.

“We’ve created a lot of habits because we’ve won a lot of games on pure skill or the score’s run up because of skill,” Paddock said.” With that you lose your attention to detail and lose attention to the little things.” 

In the end, he added, that, and Max Paddock’s strong night in net made the difference. 

The 16-year-old goaltender was called up to help when goalies Tyler Brown and Jordan Hollett were injured and proved to be a skilled young tender. In five starts he lost just one game – Friday night’s – and earned the confidence of his teammates. He made 29 saves in the win.

Paddock is expected to go back to his midget team in Brandon this week, as Hollett will be ready to suit up again for this weekend’s road games. 

The Pats travel to Calgary this week for a Friday game against the Calgary Hitmen. 

Their next home game is on Feb. 4. 

ODDS AND ENDS

• Sunday’s stars: Dawson Leedahl, Austin Wagner, Max Paddock
• Regina went two for two on the powerplay, and killed off all four of the Wheat Kings powerplays. 
• Dawson Leedahl is riding a six game goal streak with eight goals in that stretch.