Pats handle business at home, beat Blades

The Regina Pats treated the home crowd to a win at the Brandt Centre on Saturday to improve to 2-0-0-0 on the young WHL season.

Powered by two goals by forward Brayden Barnett, Regina’s WHL club was able to take the first of eight showdowns of the season with the Saskatoon Blades, winning 5-1.

“I think we are just getting a complete effort from all 20 guys,” said Pats head coach Brad Herauf. “We’re getting contributions up and down the lineup. Whatever role guys are being asked to play, we are executing it right now.”

While the Blades fell to their Highway 11 rivals, head coach Brennan Sonne was focusing on the positives.

“It was not where we are going to get to or where we want to be,” Sonne said. “The first two periods didn’t have the Blades hockey feel to it – it was quiet on the bench and things like that.

“The third period was better and we are a work in progress. Am I 100 per cent disappointed? No, I thought there were good things but in general, we have to get to where we want to be.”

It was the first game of the season for the Blades while Regina opened its season Friday on the road in Brandon, winning 7-6 in overtime.

“We knew it was going to be a committee thing (scoring goals). We knew it was going to be through hard work and pressure,” Herauf said. “Now we have our forecheck going, we will be able to create some extra (offensive) zone time and we have good players.

“(If) we get ourselves in scoring opportunities, we are going to execute.”

The Blades, who dispatched the Pats in a seven-game first-round playoff series last season, were without a number of players as defenceman Tanner Molendyk (Nashville Predators), goaltender Austin Elliott (Nashville), forward Egor Sidorov (Anaheim Ducks), and forward Jake Chiasson (Edmonton Oilers) are all currently attending NHL training camps.

Forward Brandon Lisowsky (Toronto Maple Leafs) and defenceman Charlie Wright (Carolina Hurricanes) both returned from camps and were in the lineup.

The Pats struck first in the contest with Tanner Howe, who was named the team’s captain Thursday, scoring his first of the season on the power play in the first period with his shot getting by goaltender Evan Gardner.

Saskatoon’s Jordan Keller answered later in the frame, scoring a power-play marker of his own.

Barnett scored both of his goals in the second period just over four minutes apart.

In the third, the Pats got another insurance marker from Borya Valis and Braxton Whitehead scored into an empty net.

Regina goaltender Kelton Pyne appeared in his first game of the season, stopping 29 of the shots he faced.

“It feels great to get the first one out of the way,” Pyne said. “Two big wins in the first weekend — (you) can’t ask for much more.”

Sonne and the Blades will try to move past the loss to start the season, with the bench boss saying people can’t put too much stock into the first game of a long regular season.

“It’s more of a tool for improvement in my opinion,” Sonne said. “You look around the league, all sorts of weird things happen that won’t happen in six weeks (or) two months.

“At the same time, it’s not a blowoff either – we have to learn from it and learn these lessons quickly so we can get to where we want to be.”

Regina will host the Moose Jaw Warriors on Wednesday. Saskatoon (0-1-0-0) will have its home-opener on Sunday against the Prince Albert Raiders at SaskTel Centre.