Photo by Keith Hershmiller
It was a storybook ending for the Regina Pats on Friday night as Connor Bedard’s second goal of the game 0:49 into overtime earned the Pats a 2-1 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings on Friday night.
Bedard, who was playing in his final game of the season before joining Canada’s U18 program was named the game’s first star after a heroic two goal effort.
The 15-year-old phenom lost his grandfather Garth in a car accident this week and in his first game since the accident, the stars aligned as his two goals snapped Brandon’s eight game winning streak.
Despite the loss, the Wheat Kings staff were happy with the compete level.
“We had good effort from our guys,” said Wheat Kings Head Coach Don MacGillivray. “I thought we did a lot of good things. We got a little bit loose at times in our defensive zone coverage but for the most part we played a really solid game. Give Regina credit, their goalie played good and their young star got the job done.”
The Wheat Kings lone goal came from Jake Chiasson. Brandon fired 34 shots at Roddy Ross who was excellent, earning him second star honours. Brandon his seven goal-posts on the night, in a frustrating evening around the goal.
Brandon will look to hit the reset button on Sunday night vs the Saskatoon Blades, a team that is hot on their heels for top spot in the East Division.
“We have the same message as it is every day. We want to be a team that works hard, competes hard, gives ourselves a chance to win,” added MacGillivray. “We’ve had a good stretch of hockey here and our guys are playing hard. We just want to make sure that we don’t let anything slide, we just keep going.”
The Wheat Kings and Blades will meet in the late game inside the Subway East Division Hub on Sunday. Game time is 9:00 P.M. Manitoba time. The Q Country pre-game show begins at 8:30.
