Late goals keep Wheat Kings alive
VIRDEN — The Brandon Wheat Kings lived to fight another day on Wednesday at Virden’s Tundra Oil and Gas Place, parlaying three buzzer-beating goals into a 6-4 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.
The Wheat Kings trail the series 3-1, with Game 5 back in Alberta on Friday at 8 p.m. If needed, Game 6 would be in Virden on Sunday at 4 p.m. and a deciding Game 7 is set for Lethbridge on Tuesday at 8 o’clock.
Brandon received two goals from Matteo Michels, and singles from Luke Shipley, Nolan Flamand, Nick Johnson and Quinn Mantei, with Brayden Edwards, Brayden Yager, Shane Smith and Jordan Gustafson replying for Lethbridge in front of a Western Hockey League crowd of 1,480.
“We found a way, and that’s the important part,” Michels said. “That shows you we can play with them, even when we’re not playing our best. The first two periods we came out hard and played like we did in the third game, and that’s won us the game here (Wednesday), that and the love we have for each other.”
Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said the three goals late in periods that were scored were critical to the victory.
“Those are huge,” Murray said. “Just the momentum going into breaks are huge. Those are big plays. We gave up one right at the start of the third, which wasn’t ideal — that set us back on our toes a little bit — but we bent but didn’t break. Our guys poured it all out there (Wednesday).”
The Wheat Kings were without star forward Roger McQueen, whose upper-body injury flared up in the second period of Game 3, Lethbridge product Carter Klippenstein and 18-year-old Joby Baumuller, who was fighting the flu.
Brandon took its first lead of the series eight minutes 24 seconds into the first period when Shipley came in off the rush and fired a shot over the blocker of the left-handed Lethbridge starting goalie Jackson Unger.
Lethbridge tied on a second rebound when Edwards shovelled the puck between the legs of Brandon goalie Ethan Eskit, who took over from starter Carson Bjarnason for his first start. Brandon regained the one-goal advantage with 9.6 seconds left in the first period off a faceoff. They got a shot on net and Michels scored on the rebound to send them to the dressing room with a 2-1 lead.
The Wheat Kings had a glorious opportunity early in the second when Logan Wormald took a four-minute boarding penalty 19 seconds into the second period but disaster struck when Yager intercepted an ill-advised pass and beat Eskit to the glove on a long breakaway.
When Smith took a penalty too, Brandon had a 99-second two-man advantage but failed to capitalize.
The Wheat Kings restored the lead for a second time 6:14 into the period when Flamand tucked a bad angle shot between Unger and the post. The score could have changed dramatically throughout the rest of the period but the teams had a number of near misses.
Brandon hit three posts at one end, while Eskit made his save of the game when he went into the splits to deny a backdoor tip on an odd-man rush at the other end with four minutes left in the period. The Hurricanes later dinged a puck off the crossbar three minutes later.
In a neat bit of symmetry for the Wheat Kings, they extended the lead late in the period on a goal by Michels. The speedy Texan was sprung up the middle by Dominik Petr and beat Unger with a shot with 9.1 seconds remaining.
“Time is not what I was thinking about,” Michels said of his two goals. “All I thought about was putting the puck in the net, and honestly that’s about it.”
Lethbridge responded 23 seconds into the third period when Smith was set up in the high slot and wired a shot over Eskit’s glove, The Hurricanes tied the game there minutes later when Gustafson stripped the puck from a Wheat King near the blue-line, skated in a few steps into the middle and sent a shot from the slot that leaked through Eskit to tie the game.
In a scary moment, the visitors lost forward Leo Braillard with 11:53 remaining when he took a puck to the face in the slot and left for good.
Eleven minutes into the third period, Lethbridge led 12-1 on the shot clock as they mounted heavy pressure to end the series.
As so often happens, if you don’t score on your chances, the other team will. On just their fourth shot of the period, a shot by Wheat Kings defenceman Adam Belusko hit Johnson in the back and bounced in to give Brandon an unlikely 5-4 lead.
“It was pretty cool,” Johnson said. “Our whole team was battling that entire game and we have been this entire series. Honestly we deserve a little better but we are where we are. We have to take it a game at a time.”
Lethbridge pulled Unger with over a minute remaining but never seriously threatened. Brandon had a couple of shots but didn’t cash in until Mantei intercepted a pass, made a nice move and fired the puck into the empty net with 8.1 seconds left.
“I’m proud of them,” Murray said. “I think it would have been easy to fold the tents. We had three pretty good guys sitting out and it would have been easy to say, ‘You know what, we’ve had a good run’ and pack the tents. I thought our guys rallied through a little bit of chaos in the third period and ended up getting it done.”
Eskit made 38 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Unger stopping 26 shots for the Hurricanes.
“He was real strong,” Murray said of Eskit. “He was thrown right into the fire. If you look at the scoreboard, he gave up four but he made some critical saves, especially in the second period. He made a few backdoor ones that were highlight reel saves. I thought he was real strong tonight. I’m happy for him.”
Brandon went 0-for-3 on the power play, with Lethbridge unsuccessful in one chance.
Lethbridge head coach Bill Peters said his club simply didn’t do what it needed.
“I thought we pushed in the third but it was a little bit too late,” Peters said. “I didn’t think we had a good enough complete game in order to eliminate a team.”
ICINGS: Brandon also skated without injured F Easton Odut and D Merrek Arpin, plus healthy scratch F Isaac Davies … Michels led the Wheat Kings with seven shots on net … The game took two hours, 36 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 43-28 … The WHL released its humanitarian of the year nominees. The Eastern Conference nominees are Evan Gardner of Fort St. John, B.C. (Saskatoon Blades), Max Hildebrand of Martensville, Sask. (Prince Albert Raiders) and Shane Smith of Cessford, Alta. (Lethbridge Hurricanes). The Western Conference nominees are Riley Heidt of Saskatoon, Sask. (Prince George Cougars), Jayden Kraus of Prince Albert, Sask. (Victoria Royals) and Kyle McDonough of Langdon, Alta. (Portland Winterhawks) … They also released the nominees for the WHL Business Award. The nominees include Lethbridge, the Edmonton Oil Kings and the Saskatoon Blades from the Eastern Conference and the Everett Silvertips, Portland Winterhawks and Spokane Chiefs from the Western Conference.
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