VICTORIA 7 REGINA 1
Taylor Swift’s visit to B.C. this week has nothing on hockey prodigy Connor Bedard’s when he returned to his home province two years ago. Well, OK, relatively speaking.
The scene, however, was much more muted Tuesday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial from the last time the Regina Pats made a Western Hockey League visit to the capital in 2022 amid the frenzy of Bedard-mania and which attracted a sellout crowd of 7,006.
There was a much smaller gathering of 2,360 this time around. But the result was much better for the hosts as the Victoria Royals easily outpaced the Pats 7-1 to make up for the 9-5 shellacking administered by Regina in 2022 as Bedard, now an NHL sophomore with the Chicago Blackhawks, recorded a hat-trick.
There are a few players from that night still skating on both clubs although the rebuilding Pats last month traded away one of their veteran mainstays — captain Tanner Howe, a second-round NHL draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins and invitee to this month’s upcoming Canada selection camp for the 2025 world junior championship.
The Pats, winless in seven consecutive games, began their once-every-two-seasons swing through the B.C. Division with 6-0 and 9-1 losses in Kamloops against the Blazers and Kelowna against the Rockets. The Pats, coached by former Utah Grizzlies forward and Victoria Salmon Kings foe Brad Herauf from ECHL days, are 6-16-4 and tied for last place in the WHL.
Victoria moved to 15-8-5 as its special teams proved effective with the power-play going 3-4 and the penalty-kill unit holding Regina to 0-4.
Nanaimo product Brayden Boehm led the Royals with two goals and two assists. Hayden Moore also had a four-point night with a goal and three assists. Teydon Trembecky scored his 13th goal of the season for Victoria on a three-point night. The Royals’ likely first-round NHL draft picks — forward Cole Reschny ranked for 2025 and defenceman Keaton Verhoeff set to be for 2026 — were again evident as the emergingly brilliant 16-year-old blueliner Verhoeff scored his 10th goal of the season and the slippery 17-year-old Reschny had three assists. Other goals came from captain Justin Kipkie and Caleb Matthews. Tye Spencer scored for the Pats.
Jayden Kraus made 25 saves in goal for Victoria and the harried Kelton Pyne 37 for Regina.
Next up for the Royals at the Memorial Centre are the Kelowna Rockets on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. The Rockets are 11-10-3 but finding their feet and feature two players — Seattle Kraken prospect Caden Price, and WHL player of the month for November and Washington Capitals prospect Andrew Cristall — who have also been invited to the Canada selection camp this month in Ottawa for the 2025 world junior championship.
