Pats handle business at home to force Game 7

The Regina Pats were able to stave off elimination Saturday night.

Regina defeated the Saskatoon Blades 5-3 at the Brandt Centre in Game 6 of their first-round WHL playoff series.

“I think that might have been our best game of the series overall — that and game 1,” said Pats captain Connor Bedard, who had three assists and a goal in the game. Bedard now has 11 goals and eight assists in the six games.

With the series now tied at three, a seventh and deciding game will take place Monday at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.

“We know that the job’s not done here. We’ve got to go into their barn Monday and get a win.”

While this will be the first time Bedard has played in a game 7 in his hockey career, he as played in many big games before.

He won back-to-back gold medals with Team Canada at the World Juniors.

“We’ve played them six times in nine days or something so it’s definitely different,” Bedard said.

While the visiting team won the first four games of the series, the home team has emerged victorious the last two games.

Blades head coach Brennan Sonne said he wasn’t happy with the start his team had in Game 6.

“I hated our start — not good enough and not to our standard. I think our players agree on that,” Sonne said. “About halfway through the second we started playing and you can’t play half a game. For us, that’s our focus.

“Now our family is on the line and our season is on the line so it should be a level of competitiveness, passion, and desperation that shows that.”

In the first period, Jayden Wiens scored for Saskatoon while Alexander Suzdalev answered for the Pats.

In the second, Suzdalev scored his second of the game with Tanner Howe also finding the back of the net for Regina.

That gave Regina a 3-1 lead, which has been the worst lead for Regina to have this series. In games 3 and 4, Regina let 3-1 leads in the third and Saskatoon eventually won in overtime.

Trevor Wong scored in the second period to cut the deficit to 3-2, then scored his second goal of the game early in the third to tie it just 1:04 into the third frame.

But then just 55 seconds later, Bedard gave the Pats the lead again with his first goal of the game.

Regina extended its lead, with Zackary Shantz scoring his second career WHL goal. It was originally called a goal on the ice but the officials reviewed it. The officials ruled no goal but went back to the review again, and this time ruled it as a good goal.

Sonne said he had never seen anything like that before.

“The refs told me they called back down because there was a new angle and they couldn’t determine from that angle whether it was a distinct kicking motion — that’s what I was told,” Sonne said. “You’re asking me to comment or have an opinion on things that have nothing to do with me aside from the fact of why did it even get into that situation to begin with.

“The rest of it, that’s for the league to decide whether that is the look they want or if that’s the process they want to go through, it’s up to management to have those discussions. Me? I’m in charge of why it even got there in the first place. I don’t really have a comment about it, I just want to focus on what I do.”

With Bedard expected to be the first overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft, it’s anticipated this will be his final year of junior hockey before making the jump to the pros.

With no guarantee he will play another game at the Brandt Centre, the 17-year-old had nothing but great things to say about the fan base.

“It’s been electric. It’s been unreal. We think we have the best in the league and for us to get to play these big games in front of them, it has been so much fun,” Bedard said.

The Blades will now look to defend their home ice and advance to the second round of the playoffs for a showdown with the Red Deer Rebels.

“Our focus is us. We’ve now played this team nine times in the last however many weeks. We know each other well,” Sonne said. “We know what they’re bringing and they know what we’re bringing. It’s all about the war,” Sonne said. “For only half the game (Saturday) we brought that. That’s our main focus.”