February 29 2008

Jordan Eberle recorded a hat trick and added two assists to lead the Regina Pats to a 5-4 comeback victory over the visiting Chilliwack Bruins Friday night.

Making their first ever visit to Regina (39-21-4-2), the Bruins (26-31-4-4) jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead after three power-play goals in the first 12 minutes of the game.

The first two came from Evan Pighin, his 16th and 17th of the year.

Chilliwack's third goal, at the 11:33 mark of the period, came from Oscar Moller after he went hard to the net and roofed a bad-angle backhand for his 37th goal of the season.

Down 3-0 just over halfway into the first period, Regina pulled goalie Linden Rowat and replaced him with backup Jeff Bosch.

Regina then added a power-play goal of its own at the 13:44 mark of the first when Eberle picked up a loose puck, out-waited Chilliwack goalie Mark Friesen, and ripped a wrist shot top shelf to get Regina on the board.

To start off the second the Pats continued with their penalty trouble and gave Chilliwack a two-man advantage after taking back-to-back penalties.

But Regina managed to kill of Chilliwack's 5-on-3 and seconds after getting back to even strength Tim Kraus hammered home a nifty flip pass from Eberle to make it a 3-2 game.

Two minutes into the third Regina scored its third straight goal to even things up, thanks again to a quick Eberle wrist shot from the slot.

Chilliwack then took the lead again after the Pats had trouble clearing their zone and Brandon Campos banged in a rebound for his 25th of the year.

Regina got the goal back at the midway point of the third when Eberle picked up a loose puck in front, patiently out-waited Friesen again, and popped it top shelf again to tie the game 4-4, complete his hat trick, and mark his 40th goal of his second WHL season.

With just under three minutes remaining in the game, Eberle picked up a drop pass from Michael MacAngus near the blue-line, drew the two Chilliwack defenders towards him, then dished the puck off to a wide open Tim Kraus who snapped the game-winner and his second of the night.

Earning the win off the bench while making nine saves for the Pats was Bosch (11-6-0-0). Playing well but taking the loss for Chilliwack and making 32 saves was Friesen (7-10-2-2).