Standing Pats
Regina just one win away from ultimate redemption
REGINA — The Regina Pats may not have said it at the time, but they heard the whispers.
When they were a .500 team at the Christmas break, the Pats heard people suggest they didn’t deserve to be the host team at the 2018 Memorial Cup.
When they were eliminated in the first round of the WHL playoffs, the Pats heard people say they wouldn’t recover from a 45-day hiatus to compete with the best teams in the country.
Even when they advanced to Friday’s Memorial Cup semifinal, the Pats heard people say there was no chance they could beat the OHL-champion Hamilton Bulldogs twice in the same tournament.
Guess what? They did. Thanks to a rousing 4-2 win over Hamilton on Friday night, the Pats didn’t just punch their ticket to Sunday’s championship final against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, they likely silenced a few doubters in the process.
“Stuff like that just adds fuel to the fire for us,” said goaltender Max Paddock, who stopped 44 shots in the victory. “We read that stuff just to try to pump our tires. We don’t need it — we get up enough for the Memorial Cup — but it just adds to the fire. That’s what we’re trying to do is win a Memorial Cup and trying to prove to people we deserve to be here.”
They’re doing a pretty good job of it, too.
With Friday’s win, the Pats advanced to the Memorial Cup final for the first time since they won it in 1974.
Another win on Sunday would earn them a place among the immortals of an iconic franchise that’s mired in a 43-year championship drought. Even if they don’t win on Sunday, the Pats have still earned the right to say ‘I told you so’ to those who claimed they would never get this far.
“We took that as motivation,” offered forward Cameron Hebig, “and kind of shoved it back in their face.”
You might say Regina did the same thing to the Bulldogs, who had been vocal in stating that they played “by far” their worst game of the tournament in an early 3-2 loss to the host team.
However, the narrative changed after Friday’s loss.
Not only were the OHL champions generally humble in defeat, they were quick to give credit where it was due.
“We’re not upset with (the players) and I think they get that part of it,” said an emotional head coach John Gruden. “If we played our game, (they thought) we were good enough to win this tournament. But all the credit goes to the Regina team. They earned it. They did the little things right.
“It was a tough, good game.”
Now the Pats, who have the best power play at the Memorial Cup and are operating at a 33.3 per cent success rate — scoring five times on 15 attempts will attempt to knock off Acadie-Bathurst.
The Titan has been led at the Memorial Cup by captain Jeffrey Truchon-Viel’s nine points, who has also been a force physically. Linemate Liam Murphy has also used his body to his advantage and has two goals and two assists. Speedy forward Samuel Asselin leads Acadie-Bathurst with four goals and has one of the team’s three shorthanded goals.