Pats fall to Oil Kings in final home game of November

The Regina Pats fell 6-1 to the Edmonton Oil Kings Wednesday night at the Brandt Centre as the team played its final home game of November.

“I was worried about what kind of effort we were going to get. We were all over, we just didn’t get any goals. It was a trap game. I was worried as a group we’d take these guys lightly and expect to win. We’re learning to be mature and today we weren’t very mature,” Pats head coach Brad Herauf said on the team’s effort.

Six minutes into the first period the Pats were on the power play but defenceman Parker Berge missed a pass at the point and Oil Kings’ forward, Ty Nash would capitalize on it for a shorthanded goal to make it 1-0.

Regina was playing physical off the start with big hits from Jaxsin Vaughan that drew a penalty from Edmonton and another from newly acquired forward Anthony Wilson.

“Jackson Vaughan was real physical. He’s really taken a stronghold of that centre position. He’s really understanding now those good, clean hit,” said Herauf.

“I think he’s excellent. I think he’s what was advertised as a player that I’d seen in Brandon. He plays with tons of speed and he’s physical. He’s got some offense to his game. He hasn’t produced yet, but I really liked what I saw,” added Herauf on Wilson’s first game as a Pat.

Just about halfway through the first the Edmonton dominated deep in Regina’s zone as John Szabo found the back of the net on a feed from Ethan MacKenzie to make it 2-0.

The Pats finish the period with 19 seconds remaining on their third power play of the night but have yet to get one past Oil Kings goalie Kolby Hay.

Shots were 12-11 in favour of the Oil Kings after one period of play.

• Download the CTV News app to get Regina breaking news and top stories on your device

Edmonton drew a penalty with just over 14 minutes to go in the second period and with the help of an extra attacker and Huet getting tangled up outside his net, Bruce Skyler puts it home to make it 3-0.

From there Edmonton continued to capitalize on their chances as forward Cole Miller made it 4-0 on a breakout pass from Nathan Pilling.

On the Oil Kings' 23rd shot of the night, they would once again get past Pats’ goaltender, Ewan Huet to make it 5-0. Regina would pull Huet with just over nine minutes to go in the second period and bring in Kelton Pyne.

“We got some good players taking those breakaways. Usually, we get one out of those three or four and we just didn’t tonight and take nothing away from their team. They played really hard tonight. They’re a big, physical team. We just didn’t have enough execution on our scoring opportunities,” said Herauf

The lone goal from Regina came with just over two minutes to go in the second period the Pats finally got on the board with a goal from captain Tanner Howe.

Regina was letting their emotions get the best of them as they struggled to stay out of the penalty box in the second period which would lead to another power-play goal from Edmonton to make it 6-1 after two periods.

That score would stick through the final 20 minutes of play as the Oil Kings walked away with the victory after outshooting the Pats 36-29.

Edmonton still sits last in the Western Hockey League’s (WHL) Eastern conference with a 6-12-0-1 record. The Pats find themselves in the middle of the pack with a 10-10-1-1 record. Regina will now hit the road and not return back to the Brandt centre until December.

“Definitely easier to enter that road trip with the win and the momentum but maybe it’s something that you know we needed to tap into us, to bring us back to earth and remind us, just the attention to detail that it takes for our team to win,” said Herauf.