Pats’ Bedard dazzles, but Savoie’s six-point outing leads Ice to 14th consecutive win

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This article was published 17/11/2022 (1368 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Connor Bedard may be the finest 17-year-old hockey player on the planet but even his superhuman skills weren’t enough to stop the Winnipeg Ice from winning its 14th consecutive game.

To be sure, Regina’s ace centre was at his most dangerous Thursday night.

Bedard scored his WHL-leading 19th goal of the season 10 seconds into the game on an incredible rush moments after the opening faceoff and he set up Tanner Howe’s goal later in the first period to give the Pats a 2-1 edge.

It was the visitors’ last lead of the game.

Winnipeg’s solution came from its multitude of offensive stars.

On this night, it was centre Matt Savoie, who broke out with his first career hat trick (his seventh, eighth and ninth goals of the season) and piled up a career-high six points as the Ice broke a 4-4 deadlock after 40 minutes to beat the Pats 9-5 before an overflow crowd at Wayne Fleming Arena.

“I’ve really been working on my shot and my goal-scoring — changing the angle of the puck the last few weeks,” said Savoie, a first-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in the 2022 NHL Draft. “I’ve really been putting extra time and an extra effort to have that show a difference and I was fortunate for those to go in tonight.”

Savoie’s offensive outburst came after a relatively quiet start to 2022-23.

“He’s been knocking on the door to break through for about two weeks now,” said Ice head coach James Patrick. “We knew there was more in his game.”

Savoie and linemates Connor McClennon and Owen Pederson combined for 14 points, which also included McClennon’s 15th goal and Pederson’s 11th and 12th markers.

“It’s definitely easy to get the energy up (tonight),” said Savoie. “The boys were buzzing in the dressing room before the game — everyone was ecstatic. You know, it was a big game. We don’t like playing these guys, they’re a division rival and they’re a good team so whenever we’re coming in to play these guys, we’re bringing our best effort.”

It was Winnipeg’s 14th consecutive win and improved the club’s record to 19-1-0-0 atop the Eastern Conference.

The Pats, seventh in the conference, fell to 9-10-1-1.

Bedard, the consensus choice to be the first pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, extended his point-scoring streak to 20 games with a goal and two assists. He currently leads the WHL with 46 points in 21 games.

In nine previous outings against the Ice, he had scored only once while adding six assists. On Thursday, his goal and two assists could have been more. He also had five shots on net, had several near misses and created anxiety for the Winnipeg blue-line corps everytime he stepped on the ice.

“We saw him at 15 and I’ve never seen a 15-year-old do what he did,” said Patrick. “This is obviously the best game he’s played against us but we know he’s just gotten better… It takes five guys to stop him. You give him time and space and he will make elite plays and I thought we gave him a lot of space. After the first period, we talked about being tighter on him and I thought we had showed a lot of healthy respect for him, maybe a little too much and he took advantage of it.”

Connor Dale, with his third of the season, and Benson, with his 11th, and Ty Nash, with his seventh, also scored for Winnipeg.

Braxton Whitehead, Layton Feist and Stanislav Svozil rounded out Regina’s scoring. Pats goaltender Matthew Kieper had 32 saves.

Goaltender Mason Beaupit, making his first start in an Ice uniform since being acquired in a major trade with the Spokane Chiefs last week, stopped 21 shots.

What was he thinking after Bedard’s goal?

“I was just thinking about next shot and making sure I saved it,” said Beaupit, who hails from Vancouver, like Bedard, and is very familiar with his work.

It was Beaupit’s first victory of the season after eight consecutive losses to start 2022-23 with the Spokane Chiefs.

“I definitely have some stuff I want to work on in my game and make sure I’m playing my best for the team but this is a very good team and I’m very happy to be here,” he said.

The teams meet again Saturday night at Wayne Fleming Arena in what could be Bedard’s final visit to Winnipeg as a junior player. He is expected to join the national junior team next month.

Saturday’s game time is 8 o’clock.

“There’s a lot of video to watch for both coaches,” said Patrick. “It wasn’t the prettiest defensive game, that’s for sure. There were a lot of scoring chances both ways and it turned into a bit of river hockey of times, but I guess our depth and skill came through in the end.”

ICE CHIPS: The Ice went 3-for-6 on the power play. Regina was 2-for-5. Winnipeg’s No. 1 goaltender Daniel Hauser (illness) did not dress. The club’s emergency backup for the contest was local product Justin Perreault, the club’s 12th-round (264th overall) pick in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14