Pats tie up championship series with Saturday night win

The Regina Pats proved that slow and steady does win the race at the Brandt Centre on Saturday night.

Pats defenceman Josh Mahura took advantage of a power play in the second OT period of the WHL Championship Series to take the game at home against the Seattle Thunderbirds and tie up the series.

• Seattle bests Pats in Game 1 with quick OT goal

"We knew we needed to win tonight and that was the bottom line. When it went in it was a sigh of relief for, not just me, but our whole team," said Mahurain a WHL interview. "To tie the series up here at home, it's a great feeling."

The Pats started out with one goal just 50 seconds into the game by lead scorer Sam Steel. The team took their lead into the second, but the game suddenly turned around.

Seattle snuck three goals past goaltender Tyler Brown within 56 seconds, giving them a 3-1 lead.

"Obviously it wasn't ideal for us to have that happen that quick but we knew we had to stay calm," said Mahura.

It didn't seem to get better right away for the Pats, with a possible power play goal by Steel called into question and no goal being the final decision.

Despite the disappointment, and with just 1:25 to go in the second period, Regina finally put another point on the scoreboard thanks to 19-year-old Mahura.

Rookie Filip Ahl then tied it up for the Pats early on in the third period.

With that goal unanswered by Seattle, the serieswas taken into overtime for the second consecutive night.

With Keegan Kolesar of Seattle in the penalty box, Mahura once again beat goaltender Carl Stankowski for his second goal of the night, taking the game for the Pats and tyingup the best-of-seven WHL Championship Series.

"It was a big break to get a power play like that," said Steel. "We'd been struggling a bit throughout the night so I think...we felt it coming. We capitalized and it was great."

The Pats will now head to the Thunderbirds' hometown for games 3, 4 and 5 at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash.

The teams will hit the ice for Game 3 May 9.