Regina Pats looking to pass latest road test
The Regina Pats are on the road for four games in five days, with the next one coming Friday night versus the Calgary Hitmen.
by Greg HarderThe Regina Pats should be well prepared — but not especially well rested — for one of the toughest portions of their schedule.
The Pats are slated to play three road games in three days this weekend, beginning Friday night against the Calgary Hitmen. They also face the Red Deer Rebels (Saturday night) and Edmonton Oil Kings (Sunday afternoon) after opening the trip on Wednesday with a 4-1 loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
It’s the second consecutive week that Regina has played four games in five days.
“There is an element of fatigue to it but we have had time to recover,” said head coach Dave Struch, whose club enjoyed a three-day break after concluding last week’s gauntlet with back-to-back road wins — 6-0 in Swift Current and 5-4 in Brandon.
“We need guys to be in top physical condition for us to have success and get the most out of them. After last week’s four-in-five and the effort we put in, we expect to have the same push. We expect our guys to be at the top of their game, especially at the start of the road trip.”
It didn’t quite happen that way in Lethbridge, where the Pats were slow out of the gate and never recovered. The saving grace was goalie Max Paddock, who stopped all 21 shots he faced in the first period and 38 of 41 overall.
“It was one of the best games I’ve seen Max play,” offered Struch, who couldn’t say the same for a handful of his other top players.
“We didn’t have what we had for the last six-or-so weeks — our work ethic and our ability to move our feet and play a fast hockey game. We were four or five guys short.”
Struch expects those unnamed players to bounce back this weekend, regardless of how difficult the schedule may be. The team is playing seven consecutive road contests — the longest stretch of the campaign — due to the Canadian Western Agribition at the Brandt Centre.
With three down and four more to go, the Pats can ill afford to look beyond the next game on their schedule.
“When we talk about the day-to-day process and how we work and how we do things, that’s where our focus has to be,” Struch said. “(Wednesday’s) game is over. We as coaches will dissect it and talk about it with the players. Their job is to have a good practice for 20, 25 minutes (on Thursday) and enjoy the rest of the day — get a good rest and get ready for the game in Calgary on Friday night.”
The Pats’ road swing is a test of physical endurance as well as mental toughness. They came up short versus Lethbridge after posting back-to-back wins for the first time this season.
“We had a couple of victories under our belt and that might have caused a few of them to think it was going to be a little bit easier,” Struch noted. “The reality of it is, the reason we got two victories is because of all the hard work and resiliency and the relentlessness that we put in. To lose sight of what it took to win those games is the troublesome part. Hopefully we can put that behind us.”
What’s the best way to do it?
“By coming out with lots of energy,” he continued. “We need to do everything that we didn’t do (Wednesday) — moving our feet, shooting pucks, working with and without the puck, playing smart and playing fast. We need all of that and more against a real good team in Calgary.”