U of R Rams season ends in Mitchell Bowl to Laval
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The University of Regina Rams' storybook playoff run came to an end on Saturday. The Laval Rouge et Or went on an 11-pla...
It’s down to a best-of-three series for the Regina Pats and Saskatoon Blades.
Their best-of-seven first-round WHL playoff series is tied at two games a piece after both teams answered the call on the road. Game 5 – and a chance to put the other team on the brink of elimination – takes place Friday night at SaskTel Centre. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
The Pats and Blades met six times in the regular season, with Saskatoon winning four of the contests.
Three of those six games took place in March, with two games in Saskatoon during the final week of the WHL season.
The series started off in Saskatoon after the third-seeded Blades earned the right in the regular season to have home-ice advantage for the series.
But it was the sixth-seeded Regina Pats who landed the first blow in the series.
In Game 1, the Pats came out strong and won 6-1. In the next game, the Blades kept things closer but a Connor Bedard hat trick propelled the Pats to a 6-5 win, with Zack Stringer scoring the overtime winner.
But the Blades landed their counterpunch on the road in Regina.
Saskatoon elected to make a change in net, going from Austin Elliott to Ethan Chadwick.
On back-to-back nights, the Blades were able to come back from a 3-1 third-period deficit and won 4-3 in overtime.
Egor Sidorov, who was held without a goal in the first two games, now has three in the past two games, including the OT winner on Tuesday.
Jake Chiasson scored the winner on Wednesday and is excited to take the series back to Saskatoon evened up.
“Our fans back home, they showed it in those first two games — they are there to support us and grind through this process with our team,” Chiasson said. “We’re excited to get back there and maybe give them a little bit of redemption for how the opening weekend went.”
Bedard, who has eight goals and five assists in the first four games, will look to help Regina continue the trend of road teams winning on Friday.
“You like being at home in front of your fans and everything, but in the end, it’s still a game of hockey. We’ve won there a couple times and we’re going to try and do it again,” Bedard said.