Chris Clegg
South Peace News
If there was an award for inventing ways to lose hockey games, the High Prairie Regals would be strong contenders.
Twice last week, the Regals scored first and held leads only to lose as they saw their record tumble to 1-17. Of their 17 losses this season, the Regals have held the lead eight times, which is two more than any other team in the NPHL. Considering each team plays only 20 games, it’s over 40 cent.
The Regals lost at Valleyview 12-5 on Jan. 23 and 6-4 at Fox Creek Jan. 25 as the ended their regular season road schedule winless in 10 starts.
At Valleyview, Larry Yellowknee and Kaden Desjarlais scored in the first 121 seconds and the Regals looked to be on their way.
However, the Jets roared back with four goals before the end of the period to take the lead, then outscored the Regal 4-2 in the second to take an 8-4 lead.
Rylee Hebert led the Jets with four goals while Devan Klassen added the hat trick. Former Regal Drake Cunningham, Kyler Hamelin and Cody Caron added the other markers.
Yellowknee scored twice for the Regals with Thomas Cardinal and Gordie Laderoute also scoring.
At Fox Cerek, Braydan Auger scored the first of this three goals on the night to record his first career hat trick.
However, a repeat of two nights earlier was about to happen. The Regals weakened as the game progressed. The Knights led 4-2 by the end of the second period and although the Regals did tie the game in the third, the Knights scored two power play goals in the final seven minutes to win.
A total of 101 shots were fired on goaltenders in the contest with the Regals outshooting the Knights 51-50.
The Regals will play the Valleyview Jets in a best-of-three series starting Feb. 4 at Valleyview, who swept the three-game season series against the Regals.