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Sam Oremba grew up as a fan of the Pats in Regina.
On Saturday, his power-play goal in the first period against the Swift Current Broncos sent the bears flying onto the ice.
“It was pretty exciting. It goes to a good cause, so to see the bears fall from the stands and onto the ice, it’s a surreal experience and doesn’t happen very often,” Oremba said. “It’s hard to describe – you always think (of scoring the goal) but when it actually happened, I didn’t know what to do.”
Oremba’s goal and two assists helped power the Pats to a 6-5 shootout win over the Broncos at the Brandt Centre in Regina’s 27th Teddy Bear Toss game. It was the first time a player from Regina had scored the Teddy Bear Toss goal for the Pats since Riley Woods did it in 2016.
Pats captain Tanner Howe, who had an assist on Oremba’s goal and had the shootout winner, had scored the teddy bear goal the past two seasons.
“I wanted it, but it was good to see Sam get it,” Howe said. “He deserved it so much and he has been playing so good for us these last few games so it’s awesome to see him get it. (I’m) just super-pumped.
“It’s a relief. You want to get it out of the way pretty quick and you’re kind of thinking about it and all that stuff.”
The 2,433 bears that were tossed will be collected and taken to sick children at a local hospital this upcoming week.
For the Pats, the win over Swift Current ended a six-game losing streak. It was their first game at home since Nov. 15, when they lost 6-1 to the Edmonton Oil Kings.
“It’s unreal. The guys in the room are loving it and having fun but it’s just the start of this. We have to have a good week of practice and keep going,” Howe said.
The Broncos, who were playing under interim head coach Taras McEwen, scored first in the game with Connor Gabriel putting the puck past Pats goaltender Kelton Pyne.
Oremba’s power-play goal was Regina’s first with a man-advantage after four games without one. The Pats’ power play has only two goals in its last 21 chances.
“They got that goal in the first period but it didn’t given us much momentum. It has been stale like that for us lately but we stuck through it,” said Pats head coach Brad Herauf. “We’ve been talking about frustration and managing our emotions and not being frustrated and I think we did a great job of it tonight.”
Later on in the first period, following a break to clean up the bears on the ice, Tyson Laventure gave the Broncos the lead again on the power play.
Regina answered back with Howe scoring his 16th of the season.
In the second period, Jaxsin Vaughan netted a goal for the Pats. But the Broncos responded in quick order, with Connor Hvidston and Maddix McCagherty scoring just 13 seconds apart.
In the third, the Pats got goals from Tye Spencer and Parker Berge but the Broncos answered with a goal from Rylan Gould.
With no winner decided in the extra frame, a shootout was needed with Howe being the only player to score for either team.
“It’s great just to get the monkey off of our back – we haven’t been able to get the results that we have wanted. I think we have been playing good hockey but now we’ve got guys scoring on their chances and that was the difference tonight,” Herauf said.
Pyne and Broncos goaltender Matthew Kieper stopped 29 of 34 shots.
Regina (11-15-1-1) will get two more games at home before heading out on another five-game road trip. Regina will host the Kamloops Blazers on Dec. 8.