Adam Beukeboom thought he was going to give the Regina Pats a reason to regret the fact they traded him away.
He didn't get much of a chance.
The Pats chased the 20-year-old Prince George Cougars goalie from the game with four first-period goals on 12 shots and scored four more on his 17-year-old replacement, Ty Edmonds, in what turned out to be yet another 8-0 Cougar shellacking.
Boston Leier scored three times to lead the Pats, while Morgan Kilmchuk and Chandler Stephenson each picked up two goals. Pats goalie Dawson McAuley was rarely tested, stopping 21 shots to earn his third shutout of the WHL season.
"They pushed us hard and we didn't respond and took some undisciplined penalties that ended up hurting us right away," said Cougars assistant coach Jason Becker. "Obviously, not having our feet going and not being ready at the start of the game was the difference in the first period."
Cougars forward Zach Pochiro took three consecutive minor penalties and the Pats scored on two of them. Dyson Stevenson cashed in a breakaway chance at the 15 minute mark and Klimchuk, with his first of the night, had an easy tap-in at 16:10 for the Pats' fourth goal, which prompted the goaltending change. At that point, Pochiro went straight from the penalty box to the Cougars dressing room, forced to take an early shower as he bore the brunt of head coach Mark Holick's wrath for being undisciplined on the ice.
"We spent the afternoon [Thursday] at the RCMP depot and we talked about character and not taking the easy way out and always doing things the right way, the way the RCMP do, and that's a standard we've been trying to preach with our group here," said Becker.
"Obviously, Zach made some choices tonight and so did Mark, who had to make a decision on what he did there. We have to live with it and move on from there."
Carter Hansen also found the net for the Pats, who improved their season record to 25-2-3-2. The Cougars slipped to 18-25-2-5.
The Cougars took a season-high 78 penalty minutes, most of which accumulated in a third-period line brawl. The Pats went 2-for-8 on the power play. The Cougars had just 41 seconds of power-play time in the entire game, with Dryden Hunt off for unsportsmanlike conduct, but even that backfired. They allowed Klimchuk to score shorthanded at 12:03 of the third period. It was the league-worst 12th shorthanded goal allowed this season by the Cougars.
The 8-0 loss came exactly one week after the Edmonton Oil Kings hammered the Cougars by the same score at CN Centre.
The Cougars' six-game roadtrip continues tonight in Brandon (starting at 5:30 p.m. PST, 993 CIRX FM).
