Time off at the end of the Western Hockey League regular season is a luxury, but the Regina Pats (33-25-5-1) will have a full week off. On Monday, they departed for a few days of bonding and practice in the Rocky Mountains ahead of their nine-day road trip through the Central Division.
“I think after this Banff trip, we’ll all get to know each other a little more. We’ll all just gel a little more, so we’re getting stronger every game, I think,” Scott Mahovlich, who plays centre for the Pats, said.
Captain Sam Steel, who has 10 points in his last six games, recognizes the trip has its perks.
“I think we want to come back a better team and a closer team than how we left. If we can do that, it’s going to be huge going into the playoffs.”
The squad was at full health, and 20-year-old goalie Ryan Kubic was back in net at practice, after being sidelined with post-concussion symptoms.
“Being my first couple games back, it’ll be good to get back in there. Going on the road with the boys, it’s always good for bonding so I think the guys will really come together,” Kubic noted.
Rookie goaltender Max Paddock proved himself to be a valuable back up over the past month. Paddock started seven of the past eight games, registering wins in four of them, including back-to-back victories against the league’s best Moose Jaw Warriors (46-12-1-2).
“Max came through really well in these games. It’s not totally unexpected but until you do it, and until you have the pressure of big games and in visiting rinks, instead of hand picking the spots over the course of the year, you don’t know,” head coach and general manager John Paddock, who is also the goalie's uncle, said.
Paddock also said the only way for the team to get better was to “play the tougher teams lots”. The Pats will face three teams in the basement of the Eastern Conference on their road trip through Alberta and British Columbia, meaning the quality of competition may drop.
“You have to play every game at a pretty high level if you want to win. It doesn’t matter the points in the standings…but we’ve lost games this year that we think we should have won if we played better,” Paddock added.
“When we go into games, we don’t really focus on where another team {is} in the standings. We always just try to play the same way each night, and play our game. But you know, going on this road trip, we know we want to…start piling up some wins here,” defenceman Josh Mahura added at practice Monday.
The Pats begin their road trip in Calgary, taking on the Hitmen (19-35-5-2) on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
