WHL: Regina Pats set to play game 5,000 [Video]

The Regina Pats will play the franchise’s 5,000th regular season game Friday night when they face the Wheat Kings in Brandon.

Commonly called junior hockey’s oldest franchise, the Pats played its first regular season game as a franchise back in December of 1917, a 5-2 win over the Regina Victorias, team historian Kevin Shaw wrote on the Pats’ website.

The team’s actual inception though was Oct. 30, 1917, Shaw wrote.

Known then as the Regina Patricias, the 1917-18 team would lose just one game en route to a provincial championship,” Shaw said.

The following year they would make it all the way to the Memorial Cup final before losing to the University of Toronto Schools.

The Pats first of four Memorial Cup titles came in 1925, their second in 1928, third in 1930 and fourth in 1974.

Their overall regular season record split between the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) …