Sarah Mills: We must remember them
Remembrance Day is a statutory holiday, but Sarah Mills says not everyone will take the time to remember those who made ...
Just a few days ago, Liam Pue and Dan DaSilva celebrated a bronze medal together at the U17 World Hockey Challenge in Oakville, Ont.
On Tuesday night, they set aside their newfound bond at SaskTel Centre after Pue led the Regina Pats to a 5-4 overtime win over DaSilva’s Saskatoon Blades.
“I much prefer to coach with (Pue) on my side,” DaSilva said. “It’s six games in a row I got to write his name on my card, but today was the first time in six games I had to put him on another team.”
Read more:
- The Thunder rolls: Regina claims 118th Canadian Bowl with 42-21 win over Westshore Rebels
- Rams headed to Hardy Cup, eliminate Huskies 39-27 in Canada West semifinal
- Sask. man scores hole-in-one as golf course stays open into November
Pue netted the game-winner for the Pats in his return from captaining Team Canada Red to the podium, while also adding two assists to earn the night’s first star.
He said the feeling of celebrating an overtime clincher never gets old, especially against a longtime rival in the Blades.
“It’s one of the best feelings in hockey, scoring the game-winner,” Pue said. “It’s so special and then all your teammates coming to celebrate with you, it’s so cool as well.”
Tuesday’s game saw plenty of back-and-forth between the East Division rivals, with four lead changes, plus an overtime period featuring several odd-man rushes and clutch saves.
Pue said it’s how he wanted to return to the lineup to help a Regina team earn just their second road victory of the season.
“We haven’t really won too many games on the road this year,” Pue said.
“This game was important for us, especially a divisional game in the standings too. I was so happy I could come back and contribute like I did.”
It’s a familiar script for the Blades, who have lost three of their last four games in overtime and have endured a stretch of just one win in their last seven games.
Five of those six losses have been by a single goal, though DaSilva said they need to find that extra gear to put teams away.
“We’re ending up on the wrong side of it too many times now,” DaSilva said.
“We’re going to have to find a way to dig in and give a bit more to end up on the right side. It’s been a frustrating few weeks, but at the end of the day we’re in every single night, every game.”
For the seventh game in a row, the Blades opened the scoring with captain Brayden Klimpke firing home his sixth goal of the season on the power play 6:31 into Tuesday’s game.
Kazden Mathies picked up an assist on the Klimpke opener, which extended his season-long point streak to a dozen games.
Regina only needed three minutes to get that goal back with a power play marker of their own from Carolina Hurricanes prospect Zachary Lansard, with Pue and Maddox Schultz, who also returned from a record-setting stint at the U17 World Challenge, netting assists.
Pue added his second assist of the night with just 30 seconds left in the first period, as his wraparound attempt was finished off by Pats import forward Samuel Karsay in the slot for the 2-1 goal.
Saskatoon turned the tide early in the second period, as Hayden Harsanyi finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play before Yegor Gusev buried his third goal of the season 1:32 later to give the Blades the lead again 3-2.
Regina Pats forward Mathis Paull (left) and Saskatoon Blades defenceman Josh Fluker (right) getting involved in a scrum during Regina’s 5-4 overtime win at SaskTel Centre on Nov. 10, 2026 (Steve Hiscock / Saskatoon Blades)
With under four minutes on the clock before the second intermission buzzer, the Pats responded with their second power play goal of the night off a point shot by Ellis Mieyette, which found its way through traffic to make it a 3-3 score at the break.
Schultz recorded his second point of the evening on a long-range shot which bounced through the legs of Blades goaltender Martin Psohlavec with 6:53 remaining, but Saskatoon clawed back with Harsanyi’s second goal of the game under two minutes later on the power play to send the game to overtime.
Both Saskatoon and Regina got their chances in the extra frame, but it was the Pats skating away in celebration with a two-on-one rush finished off by Pue on a cross-crease pass with 29.9 seconds remaining.
“It was a great play by Reece (Hamilton) to get it up to (Lansard), and get us on a two-on-one,” Pue said. “(Lansard) is such a gifted player, I knew he was going to make that pass to me.”
Harsanyi said their group is going through their first test of adversity this season with so many tight games simply not falling their way.
“We’re playing well, but eventually you got to find ways to win,” Harsanyi said.
“You have to. You can’t win with one win in our last (seven) games, whether it’s overtime or not. Points are nice, but we got to find a way to start winning games.”
Tuesday’s game kicked off a five-game home stand for the Blades with Edmonton, Portland, Wenatchee and Medicine Hat all slated to visit SaskTel Centre in the coming weeks.
DaSilva said with so much time at the arena on tap, he’s hopeful his players will get the chance to put their recent losses behind them.
“We need to reset a bit internally,” DaSilva said. “I think the guys just need to get away from the rink a bit, then we need to get back to work.”
DaSilva also confirmed post-game that star rookie Kain Martinuik will miss “a few weeks” with a broken finger suffered in the bronze medal game of the U17 World Challenge with Canada White.
The Pats (9-6-1) will host the Portland Winterhawks on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Brandt Centre, while the Blades (7-5-5) hit the ice against the Edmonton Oil Kings on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Read more:
