The Wheat Kings wanted a strong start against the Regina Pats and they got one. It was the middle of the game, however, that turned against them.
Dylan Ronald and Nigel Boehm scored in the first period, and Joby Baumuller scored in the second, but it wasn’t enough as the Wheat Kings fell 6-3 to the Regina Pats. Jayden Kraus came in to relieve Filip Ruzicka after the second frame.
“I think we got sloppy and kind of lazy, cheating the game a bit,” said Wheat Kings’ head coach and GM Marty Murray. “We took some offensive zone penalties. We had some chances later but it wasn’t good enough.”
Defensemen jumping into the attack was the story of the first period for the Wheat Kings It started with Ronald, coming up to take a feed from Luke Mistelbacher off the left wing and ripping one home low and hard.
Boehm was in on the act next. He started the play by sending Joby Baumuller up the right side with speed and Baumuller worked it back out front to him. Rather than just shoot, Boehm cut sharply to his backhand and tucked in his first of the season.
Regina would get an answer before the period was out. On a two-on-one, Mathis Paull was stopped, but the man who fed him the puck, Jace Egland, was there to find the rebound and cut the Wheat Kings’ lead in half.
Defensemen again had their say in the second period, this time for the Pats. Ephram McNutt took the puck from his own zone and went end-to-end as the Wheat Kings changed, leaking a shot through Ruzicka to make it 2-2.
McNutt went right back to work on the Pats’ second power play of the period. Just four seconds into it, he took a one-timer from the left point that found its way in.
With a power play of their own, the Wheat Kings responded. Jaxon Jacobson sent the puck from the right wing wall to Baumuller, who was waiting for a one-timer of his own. He ripped his 28th of the season past Taylor Tabashniuk to tie the game.
The Pats struck twice more before the period was out, however. First, Zach Lansard picked off a pass from Ruzicka and deposited it into the empty net. Then, with 1:27 on the clock in the period, Keets Fawcett sniped one off the rush from the top of the right circle for the 5-3 lead.
That, as it turned out, was the last goal for quite some time. Fawcett struck again in the third period with 90 seconds to go, this time into the empty net, to make it 6-3.
The Wheat Kings now head on the road to Saskatchewan to face the Prince Albert Raiders and Saskatoon Blades.
