REGINA PATS TRAINING CAMP - DAY TWO

by Ron "Scoreboard" Johnston - I had a chance to take in the evening session of the Regina Pats Training Camp on Saturday. The first game had the Rookie Blue Team playing against the Red Team. The Blue Team came out the victors winning 8-4 with British Columbia's # 29 Devon Allenby scoring 3 of the goals, all in the first period. His line mate (Left Winger) Taylor Balog was another standout for the Rookies.

In the last minute of the 2nd period a little but tough guy, Logan Saworsky, took on Devon Allenby in a fight. Logan got in four good punches keeping his head down with a second a solid punch to Allenby's forehead.



(Photo: Lumsden Arena - taken by Ron "Scoreboard" Johnston)


There were approximately 100 fans who took in the evening sessions. The second game had the Veteran Red team playing against the Grey team.

(Photo: Left to Right: Shaun Sutter, Assistant Coach; Curtis Hunt, Head Coach; and Ryan Cyr, Goalie Consultant - taken by Ron "Scoreboard" Johnston)

The Red team won 4-1 over the Grey team. Tomas Hricina scored a goal from the left face-off circle on a rebound off the back boards. In the span of two minutes in the second period Linden Rowat let in two goals. With five minutes remaining Brett Leffler scored on a difficult shot, from the right corner boards to the upper left portion of the net. Then Mitch Czibere scored in front of the net to give the reds a comfortable lead.

The hardest body check of the game came from our new Draft Import Pick, Czech Republic Michel Poletin, a Left Wing 210 pounder, at the mid way point of the 2nd period when he made a hard body check into the boards on a Grey Team player. (Photo: Michel Poletin)



(Head Coach Curtis Hunt talking to the players prior to practice - Photo: taken by Roy Antal, Regina Leader Post)

The rookies duelled in a pair of high scoring affairs. Game one saw 2009 first round bantam pick Chandler Stephenson (Saskatoon, SK) score three timed in a 6-2 Team White win: Team White 6 – (Chandler Stephenson (3)/Cole Boychuk/Tyler Meuller/Michael Sagen) Team Blue 2 – (Devon Allenby/Tayler Balog)

Game two saw a complete reversal, with Team Blue rolling to the 8-4 win. Devon Allenby (Chilliwack, BC) picked up the hat trick and 2009 2nd round bantam pick Tayler Balog (Weyburn, SK) scored twice:Team Blue 8 – (Devon Allenby (3)/Tayler Balog (2)/Ryan Baskerville/Aiden Crowther/Bryn McNabb)Team White 4 – (Joel Harnden (2)/Michael Benson/Chandler Stephenson)

The veterans played things a little tighter with Team Red and Team Grey splitting their games. Game one saw Devan McLean (Rosedale, BC) scoring twice for the 3-1 Team Grey win:Team Grey 3 – (Devan McLean (2)/Lucas Froese)Team Red 1 – (Michal Poletin)
Team Red bounced back in the late game, as Mitch Czibere (Ft.Sask. AB) scored twice for the 4-2 win.Team Red 4 – (Mitch Czibere (2)/Brandon Davidson/Brett Leffler)Team Grey 2 – (Koltyn Miller/Tomas Hricina)

There have been a pair of injuries at camp, both involve veterans: D – Matt Delahey – Charley Horse (Day-to-Day) C – Jason Gardiner – Knee (Indefinite)\

It was a late night for the hockey staff as well, as the first cuts came down, with these players getting reassigned to their respective minor hockey clubs: Devon McLean, Roger Tagoona, Jordan Daniels, Brian Cochran,Tyler O’Connell, Dylan MacNab, Zach Wildman, Justin Christian, Myles Dunne, Kelby Lang, Jeff Froese, Devon Audette, Bryn MacNab, Max Faulkner, Brennan Frykas, Mackenzie Johnson, Tyler Bell, Michael Brown, Colton Laroque, Colton Pankiw, Tyler Boyer, Jack Rodewald, Michael Benson, Logan Sawarski, Cole Boychuk, Spencer Schoen, Darrin Robinson, Levi Schwab,Taran Kozun, Evan Zdunich

Sitting beside Kevin throught out the evening session this was part of what he had to say:

Chandler Stephenson is as advertised..... small-ish, fast, can stickhandle, has a wicked shot and can play defence.... he was everywhere for all 3 scrimmages. Tayler Balog is a big power forward that has a real nose for the net has pretty decent touch, can skate and can hit. Dyson Stevenson is one of those players that I really don't know what to say about him other than I like him.... I think he could be and should be a WHLer one day.

Ryan Baskerville is a big bodied power forward that can bang and crash with the best of them (the rooks) and seems to have a little touch around the net too. Aidan Crowther is another fairly big bodied power forward type.... very similar to Baskerville. Joel Harnden never really stood out to me much but any time I noticed him he was taking the puck one-on-one with a d-man and finding ways around them and can score. The theme seems to be bang and crash type players for the rookies and it continues on with Devon Allenby.... For the first 2 scrimmages I noticed him hitting and skating and hitting some more; then what seemed to be out of nowhere he sniped and sniped and sniped (had 5 points [4g-1a I believe] in the 8-4 win).

Dayton Reinboldt, Michael Benson, Garrett Lockeridge and Logan Saworski are all crash and bang energy type players. One last player I will mention is Matthew Hildebrandt..... I really enjoy his style.... he has really good speed, seems like he could be the "greasy" type player that could be part agitator, speedster and eventually a goal scorer.

Thanks Kevin.