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• Regina Pats head coach Dave Struch deserves commendation for extracting everything possible from a team that is destined to miss the WHL playoffs for a second successive season. It would be very easy for the players to pack it in during the dog days of another rebuilding year, but rare is the game in which the effort level is deficient. Consider the fact that Regina (15-26-3-2) has a 6-2-2-0 record in its past 10 home games, the most recent of which was Friday’s 5-4 shootout victory over the Victoria Royals (25-18-4-1). Regina determinedly overcame deficits of 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3.

• That said, anyone who salutes the Pats for their “compete” or “compete level” should be muzzled or, better yet, given a one-way bus ticket to Sheboygan. Can the misuse of “compete” please be eliminated from the hockey lexicon?

• Yes, there is a “W” in “Dubinsky.” Cole Dubinsky has scored the winning goal in each of the Pats’ past two games. He tallied in overtime Jan. 26 to give Regina a 4-3 victory over the visiting Saskatoon Blades and followed up Friday with the lone shootout goal.

• Still missing from the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Randy Gradishar and Harold Jackson. Gradishar was a tackling machine at middle linebacker for the Denver Broncos from 1974 to 1983, earning all-pro honours on six occasions. Jackson, who starred for the Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots, was a more dangerous receiver than 2020 PFHOF enshrinee Harold Carmichael.