Pats bounce T-Birds 2-1

Tired legs and bouncing pucks did the Thunderbirds in on Saturday night in Regina. Seattle gave up two third-period goals and looked gassed as the Regina Pats came back to hand the T-Birds their third loss on their Eastern Conference swing.

Regina got goals from Morgan Klimchuk and Patrick D’Amico along with 29 saves by goalie Daniel Wapple. Seattle got an early goal from Luke Osterman but could not add to it and ran out of steam in the third period. Taran Kozun was strong in net, making 33 saves on the night.

The T-Birds had their chance to extend the early lead on several occasions but suffered from some bad puck luck. With open nets the T-Birds had three golden opportunities dashed when they could not control bouncing pucks. That allowed the Pats to hang around in this game and eventually go ahead.

The T-Birds turned in a solid road period in the first. Osterman picked up his first career WHL goal early on when he fired a shot from the high slot on the rush.

For the second straight night the T-Birds struggled with penalties in the second period. Regina was awarded four power-play chances during the period and only a strong T-Birds penalty kill kept them off the score sheet. What those power plays did do, however, was change the momentum of the game and force Seattle to expend a ton of energy.

In the third period Seattle looked tired. The T-Birds stopped moving their feet and started turning the puck over. The result was they were out-shot 14-9 and they ended up coughing up the lead. Klimchuck got the game even early in the third period on a rebound for his sixth goal of the year.

It seemed like maybe the T-Birds would have enough juice to steer the game into overtime and salvage at least a point out of the game, but that was not to be. Another turnover led to Regina scoring with under 5 minutes left as D’Amico cashed in. It was the former T-Birds prospect’s 10th of the season and put Seattle in a late hole.

Seattle kept pushing and had a couple more chances but once again could not get the puck to cooperate. The loss drops the T-Birds’ record on the road trip to 2-3. They will have a chance to even it up Sunday afternoon when they visit the Swift Current Broncos.

Notes

• Osterman’s first career goal means that only Florian Baltram and Sahvan Khaira remain as rookies who have yet to light the lamp for Seattle.

• Saturday night was a nice bounce-back game for Kozun, who gave up four goals on only 11 shots in Moose Jaw Wednesday night. He made several big saves in the third period when the T-Birds were struggling. Kozun is having an excellent season and is sixth in the WHL in goals-against-average.

• Expect a low scoring affair Sunday in Swift Current. Both teams feature a strong defense and goaltending and are also struggling to score goals consistently. The Broncos are in second place in the Eastern Division, trailing Brandon by nine points.

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