Fatigued, young Regina Pats lose home opener to Brandon

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Exhausted or not, the Regina Pats learned it’s not a good idea to snooze when playing their WHL home opener against the explosive Brandon Wheat Kings.

“I think that we were a little tired,” said Pats head coach Brad Herauf, minutes after Brandon’s 5-1 victory Saturday at the Brandt Centre.

“The difference was, when we had our scoring chances, we weren’t scoring. They did.”

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Playing before an announced crowd of 3,481, Nicholas Johnson scored three goals for Brandon. But during a third-period, everyone-on-the-ice scuffle Johnson was wrestled to the ice by Regina’s Zach Moore and limped to the Wheat Kings bench.

It was the second game in two nights for each team. Brandon opened its season with a four-goal outing from Roger McQueen in a 5-2 victory over the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors while the Pats beat the hometown Prince Albert Raiders 3-2 on Zack Shantz’s  overtime marker.

“It’s been a hard week of practice,” said Herauf. “We’ve got seven guys out right now who we’re going to implement into our lineups. So it’s been a lot to task the young guys with school, the back-to-back games and we didn’t get back till almost 3 a.m. last night.

“It’s a learning process. There’s no excuses but we have a young lineup here tonight and it’s a different beast when you’re asking your body to play hockey and your body may be saying, ‘No!’ ”

Easton Odut opened the scoring in the dying second of the first period and Johnson put Brandon ahead 2-0 late in the second period. Johnson completed his natural hat trick with two more goals early in the third period before Tye Spencer tallied Regina’s only marker against Ethan Eskit.

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Brandon’s Nolan Flamand completed the scoring midway through the third period. Eskit made 24 saves while Regina goalie Ewan Huet faced 42 shots.

“It’s everyone being bought in,” said Spencer, when asked what the players will be discussing after the loss. “It’s everyone being ready to play, bringing what they have.

“Some people score goals, some people bring energy. Knowing what you bring to the table is something that’s gonna benefit the team and there’s a reason why you’re here.”

The Pats were playing without veteran forwards Tanner Howe and Jaxsin Vaughan and defender Corbin Vaughan, who are attending NHL camps with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings respectively.

Brandon was outplaying and outshooting the Pats 22-11 midway through the second period before the home team started generating some legitimate scoring chances. On one opportunity, veteran defenceman John Babcock was thwarted by Eskit before barreling into the Wheat Kings goalie, earning a penalty.

Johnson scored on the ensuing power play. Another Pats defender, Dayton Deschamps, was assessed four minor penalties.

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“It was a one-goal game until there were three minutes left in the second period and we take an undisciplined penalty,” said Herauf. “That’s, to me, the big turning point in the game.

“We talk lots about discipline. We play hard so we’re gonna take penalties, but stuff after the whistle, they’re not hard penalties. They’re not acceptable by us.”

Regina visits Moose Jaw on Friday at 7 p.m. with a return match slated for Sunday, 2 p.m., at the Brandt Centre.

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