PATS MOVE INTO PLAYOFF SPOT

Lethbridge, Alta. — An absolutely wild third period ended in the Regina Pats favour on Wednesday night in Lethbridge, after they scored three unanswered goals to come away with a 6-4 victory.

The Pats now hold the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference standings with 13 games remaining in the regular season.

A slow start luckily didn’t cost the Pats, as Connor Bedard’s power play goal late in the opening frame tied the game 1-1 after 20 minutes. Regina only managed four shots on goal in the first period.

Although the Hurricanes took an early lead in the second period on the power play, the Pats responded with two goals in under two minutes, with Bedard scoring his 40th of the season and second of the night, followed by Logan Nijhoff jamming home his 16th goal of the season. Bedard joins former Pats forward Jeff Friesen (1992-93) as the only players in the last 30 years to score 40 goals in a season in the Western Hockey League as a 16-year-old.

Lethbridge took back the lead midway through the third period with two goals of their own in quick succession, both off the stick of Justin Hall.

But the Pats rallied, and quickly too, with Neithan Salame putting home a back-door feed from Bedard at the 10:10 mark of the third, which was followed by Layton Feist’s go-ahead goal just four minutes later. Cole Dubinsky gave the Pats some much-needed insurance less than a minute later to make the score 6-4.

Regina took back-to-back penalties late in the game, giving the Canes a 6-3 on advantage, but the Pats killed it off without a blemish. In the end, Regina went 1-for-2 on the power play, and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill.

The Pats are 3-0-1 in their last four games and now hold the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference with 51 points. Calgary and Prince Albert are each one point back, but Calgary has played three more games. The Pats still play P.A. twice more this season.

(ReginaPats.com/Photo: Candace Ward)