Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list inclu...
Sam Steel put on a show for his family and for the fans Friday night at the Brandt Centre.
Steel’s parents, as well, the parents of most of the players on the team are in town for “Parents Weekend” and they were treated to a 7-0 blowout against the Swift Current Broncos.
Steel put up four goals in the win, six weeks after notching his first career hat trick.
“He was really dancing tonight, he was really awesome,” head coach John Paddock said. “We’ve seen it before, that was one of his better performances.”
Not one to brag about his obvious talent, Steel said he felt “pretty good” about how he played.
“It’s good to play well with family in town, “ he admitted, adding he’s looking forward to spending time with them on the Pats off day on Saturday.
Steel also ensured he gave credit to linemate Dawson Leedahl whose passes made two of his goals “pretty easy.”
“The other ones were just going to the net and shooting the puck and luckily they went in,” he said.
The first period was absent of scoring, but not absent of Pats chances, some at the hands of Broncos mistakes.
Two errors by Broncos players led to nearly back-to-back breakaways by Sam Steel and Sergei Zborovskiy but unfortunately didn’t lead to goals for either.
Tyler Brown and the Pats penalty kill was solid through two Broncos powerplays in the first. In fact, Brown only faced three shots the whole period.
Steel came alive in the second and opened the scoring with a powerplay goal less than three minutes into the second period, and just 38 seconds after Lane Pederson was charged with a game misconduct.
Adam Brooks, who was thought to have hit 100 points earlier in the week, only to have the stats changed the next day, hit 100 at home with an assist to Steel’s goal.
Making it even more special for the captain, his parents were in the crowd to see it.
“I guess it was kind of a blessing in disguise just the way it all worked out,” Brooks said. “It’s nice they got to witness that.”
A cross-checking penalty put the Pats back on the powerplay and Steel was right there to take advantage again, finding a hole on Jordan Papirny’s left side.
Steel completed the second hat trick of his career late in the second period after collecting a rebound from Dawson Leedahl, but he wouldn’t stop there.
The Pats started the third period flying with back to back goals from Jeff de Wit and Nick Henry, chasing starting goaltender Papirny out of the net in favour of Taz Burman.
Steel went on to score a fourth goal about five minutes after the swap to make it 6-0.
Then with less than five minutes left in the period, Connor Hobbs got in on the scoring netting his 27tth of the season.
The Broncos found no answer to the Pats, putting up just 15 shots on Brown the whole game. The final shots on goal favoured Regina 51-15.
The Broncos will get a chance at redemption Sunday afternoon when they return to the Brandt Centre to play their division rivals again.
Puck drop is at 4 p.m.
GAME NOTES:
- Stars: Sam Steel, Nick Henry, Duncan Pierce
- Nick Henry leads the league in rookie scoring
- Adam Brooks hit 101 points tonight and is second in the league only to teammate Sam Steel. It’s his second 100 point season in a row.
- Duncan Pierce notched his first point in the WHL.
