Pats lose both to start US Trip
Game 1 at Spokane
The
Pats opened their six games in a nine-day United States road trip at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena as they visited the Chiefs for the first time since a 6-2 loss on January 18, 2020. This time the Queen City Kids fell by a
score of 5-2 in front of 10,149 loud and boisterous fans.
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| Tye Spencer - Keith Hershmiller Photography |
Tye Spencer and Braxton Whitehead gave the Pats a 2-0 lead before the halfway point of the opening period before Hayden Paupanekis replied to pull the Chief to within one as the first ended.
Tye
Cheveldayoff would knot the game at 2-2 midway through the middle frame and it
seemed like the ice tilted in favour of the hometown Chiefs as the first 40
minutes would down.
Unfortunately
for the Pats, Jaxsin Vaughan took a five-minute major for kneeing just
14 seconds into the third and it was something that the Pats could not overcome.
As the major was winding down the Conner Roulette scored a powerplay marker to
give the Chiefs their first lead of the game and the Pats had no pushback. Ben
Bonni scored the insurance marker with less than three minutes left and Berkly
Catton added an empty netter with just over a minute left to give the
Chiefs a 5-2 win.
The
Chiefs outshot the Pats 36-21 overall and 15-4 in the third period.
The Goalies
Ewan Huet took the loss and fell to 12-17-0-1 as he stopped 31-of-35
shots directed his way. Dawson Cowan kicked out 19-of-21 as he picked up
his 15th win of the season.
The Special Teams
The
Pats powerplay scored for the seventh straight contest (1/5) and were 11-for-32
(34.38%) through that stretch while killing 4-of-6 Chief man advantages.
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| Keith Hershmiller Photography |
On
Saturday, the Pats traveled to Kennewick, Washington to face the Tri-City
Americans. 5,637 fans watched as their hometown club beat the
Pats 5-3.
The
Americans were wearing pink jerseys with white numbers (which were really hard
to read by the way) and pink ice for their Cancer Awareness Night.
The
opposite of Friday happened as the Tri-City Americans took a 2-0 lead late in
the first period on goals by Carter MacAdams and Brandon Whynott before
Tye Spencer ripped home a powerplay marker with 45 seconds left in the first
period to pull the Pats to within one as the first intermission began.
Jake Sloan and Brayden Barnett exchanged
goals in the middle period as the Americans took a 3-2 lead heading into the
crucial third period.
With just
under five minutes left, Kelton Pyne made a big glove save, but the puck popped into the air to Andrew Fan and he put it past the Pats
netminder to give the Americans a 4-2 lead. Just over two minutes later Sam
Oremba pulled the Pats back to within one at 4-3. With Pyne on the Pats’
bench, the Americans won a defensive zone face-off and the puck ended up on Parker
Bell’s stick and he sealed the Americans' win at 5-3.
The teams
ended up tied on the shot counter at 33-33.
The Goalies
Pyne played
well for the Pats as he stopped 28-of-32 in the loss. Draft prospect Lukas Matecha
was strong for the Americans as he kicked out 30-of-33 including some big-time
stops that kept the Pats from tying the game.
The
Special Teams
The Pats'
powerplay clicked once (1/4) again increasing their streak with a powerplay
goal to eight games going 12-for-36 (33.33%). The Pats killed all three American
man advantages.
Of Note
Barnett was playing in his 100th career WHL game. Tanner Howe has seven points (1G-6A) in a three-game point streak. Spencer has goals in three straight contests.
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