Regina Pats Stumble Into WHL Playoffs Despite Late-Season Struggles
The Regina Pats have secured a spot in the Western Hockey League playoffs, even though they concluded their regular season with five straight defeats. Their postseason journey begins with a challenging first-round matchup against the reigning league champions, the Medicine Hat Tigers.
Qualifying Amid Adversity
Goaltender Marek Schlenker, who was honored as the Pats' most outstanding player for the 2025-26 season, expressed immense satisfaction with making the playoffs. "Huge," Schlenker remarked when asked about qualifying. "Starting the year 0-and-6, but even before that, a lot of people probably put us in those bottom three teams. So to prove a bunch of people wrong would feel real good. That's been our goal all year."
The Pats' path to the playoffs was bolstered by a strong 7-3 run in late February, which featured surprising victories against formidable opponents like the Prince Albert Raiders and Edmonton Oil Kings. This marks Regina's first playoff appearance since the 2022-23 season, when they were led by Connor Bedard and fell to the Saskatoon Blades in a hard-fought seven-game series.
Late-Season Collapse and Playoff Berth
A single win in any of their final five games would have clinched a playoff berth outright, but the Pats suffered defeats in all of them. This included a home-and-home series against the Brandon Wheat Kings, with a 6-3 loss on Friday in front of a season-high crowd of 6,242 at the Brandt Centre, followed by a 4-2 road loss on Saturday. Regina finished the regular season with a record of 25 wins, 34 losses, 7 overtime losses, and 2 shootout losses.
Ultimately, the Pats backed into the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference after the Swift Current Broncos upset the Moose Jaw Warriors 4-1, and the Medicine Hat Tigers defeated the Red Deer Rebels 8-3 on the final day of the season.
Daunting First-Round Opponent
The Pats now face the Medicine Hat Tigers, who tied for first place in the Eastern Conference with the Prince Albert Raiders but were awarded the second seed due to the league's tie-breaking format, which favored Prince Albert's 52 wins over Medicine Hat's 50. The Tigers are the WHL's highest-scoring team, having netted an impressive 348 goals during the regular season, compared to Regina's 234.
Medicine Hat's offensive prowess is led by the dynamic twin brothers Markus Ruck, who led the league with 108 points, and Liam Ruck, who finished second with 104 points. In two March meetings, the Tigers dominated the Pats with decisive 11-2 and 6-0 victories.
Confidence in the Face of Challenge
Despite the daunting matchup, Regina's captain and defender, Ephram McNutt, remains undaunted. "Oh, man, they're very skilled," McNutt said of the Tigers. "Definitely the most skilled team in the league. More skilled than Everett (Silvertips) and P.A. They play a real, offensive, attack game. Med Hat just skates by us and moves the puck as a team. We don't match up particularly well against them; they're just a different style that we want to play and unfortunately the skill sometimes can get away. But that being said, we're not scared of anybody."
Head coach Brad Herauf acknowledged that entering the playoffs on a winning note would have been ideal. "Oh, for sure," Herauf stated. "That's the way we want to do it. We want to make our own luck and make our own bounces with some of the tough luck we've had the last couple of weeks with oddball injuries and last-minute things that you don't really deal with. I think we could use a bounce here or there, but we just can worry about today."
As the playoffs commence, the Regina Pats are poised to embrace the underdog role, aiming to defy expectations and make a deep postseason run against the formidable Medicine Hat Tigers.
