OIL KINGS 5 PATS 2
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| Photo courtesy Keith Hershmiller Photography |
REGINA — The Regina Pats may have lost more than just a hockey game Wednesday evening. Edgars Kulda scored back-to-back goals to lead the Edmonton Oil Kings to a 5-2 triumph in the Brandt Centre but star Pats goalie Daniel Wapple left the game in the middle period and did not return.
With Edmonton leading 3-2, Wapple was bashed into the net by Oil Kings forward Luke Bertolucci and appeared to sustain a right knee injury. The Saskatoon product had stopped nine of 12 shots before being forced to the Pats dressing room.
The game was tied 2-2 after the opening 20 minutes with both Pats goals coming on the powerplay from Dryden Hunt. Edmonton led 3-2 after two and added two more in the third to put it away.
Dawson MacAuley stopped 24 of 25 shots in relief of Wapple while Edmonton’s Tristan Jarry made 23 saves at the other end to collect his 40th win.
Regina was outshot 38-25 while going 2/5 on the powerplay and 3/3 killing penalties. They allowed a shorthanded, empty-net goal by Curtis Lazar with :56 remaining to ice it. The attendance was 4111.
The Pats (37-24-6) now have five games remaining including Friday’s showdown in Lethbridge. Faceoff is 8:00 on 620 CKRM (Press Box Sports Bar Pregame Show at 7:35 pm).
conner gay looked out of place on the leier line he is too slow. and our third line played terrible all night. sure hope wapple is ok
They had a good line in Leier-Hunt-McVeigh and Gay was completely out of place on that line. Our top line did nothing and defensively were were brutal.
From the lack of effort it would appear that the team is satisfied with just making the playoffs. If that's the case they should just start resting their players and get ready for the first round. Although it could be argued that most of them took the night off last night. They are now in a very shaky position to get second seed.
How are they in "A very shaky position to get 2nd seed"???? They are 3 points up on Swift Current with 5 games left..i'd say they are in the drivers seat and control their own destiny for 2nd spot.
Would have to disagree with the assessment of the forward lines. 3 goals directly attributable to the defense in either a giveaway (Dmitry) or both D getting confused by taking the wrong Oil Kings forward as they entered our offensive zone. 1st line had a number of scoring opportunities but couldn't cache in, while 2nd line got both goals, with Gay also having some scoring chances.
We are still in control of our destiny for 1st place. Need a good 2 games this weekend.
Bill W
"It's a little bit lighter in the room, it's not so intense," said Dyson Stevenson.
Glad they are having fun this year.
Both of our goals were on the PP. We didn't score an even strength goal all night. They scored four plus a shorty. We had the line match ups but they still owned us all night. None of the lines did anything even strength. Defence was terrible.
Regardless of where we finish we're not going to beat these guys four times in a series.
I feel some empathy with Coach Stothers from MJ regarding the officiating in the WHL. Is there any reason that the likes of Wieler should be officiating in the WHL. The more you look at the hit on Wapple the more you see that Mumby barely got a stick on him. Bertolucci skated right into Wapple without trying to avoid him. Then he calls Sinitsyn for Clipping on a real good hip check. If the coaches and players are held to a high standard, why aren't these marginal officials. Last night's game did not show high standard by the officials.… Read more »
Reffing in the Dub is mediocore at best and Wieler is one of the worst. Pats will never get a call to go their way with him doing their games. I will guarantee you that if one of our guys ran over the Edmonton goalie last night the way Wapple got hit we would have gotten a 5 min major and a game. I agree with the previous comment on the clipping call which was a perfect and clean hip check. Another example of Wielers incompetence! He is nothing short of brutal!