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Americans hold off Wheat Kings

By: Rob Henderson

Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012 at 12:16 AM | Comments: 0

A late third-period push by the Brandon Wheat Kings couldn't undo the damage done by sloppy play earlier in the frame.

The Tri-City Americans beat Brandon 4-3 Saturday at Westman Place, handing the Wheat Kings their second straight loss on home ice.

Trailing 2-1 going into the third period, a pair of miscues in their own zone led the Wheat Kings to give up goals 1:43 apart to Lucas Nickles and Lukas Walter for a 4-1 Tri-City lead that proved to be safe despite Brandon's late charge.

"As a team we played pretty good tonight, but the only thing is that we were not that consistent," said forward Alessio Bertaggia, who scored Brandon's first two goals and also assisted on Ryan Pulock's marker with 34 seconds left in the game. "We played good for maybe 10 minutes, then we played maybe so-so for five minutes. But we've got to play more consistent."

With three losses, including one in overtime, during their four-game homestand, the Wheat Kings will leave for their seven-game West Coast road trip on Monday with a 5-3-1-0 record.

The Americans also got goals from Parker Bowles and Connor Rankin as they improved to 5-3-0-1 with the victory on the first game of their East Division trip.

After Bowles opened the scoring in the second period, Bertaggia tied the game on a nice setup from rookie Tim McGauley, who earned his first Western Hockey League assist on the play.

The tie lasted only 29 seconds before Rankin weaved through the Brandon defence and beat Wheat Kings goalie Corbin Boes, who had a 33-save night.

Nickles and Walter added to the lead in the first 4:50 in the third period before Bertaggia capitalized on a long breakaway pass from Jens Meilleur midway through the frame and Pulock scored a power-play goal with Boes pulled for an extra attacker.

Wheat Kings head coach Dwayne Gylywoychuk was happy to see his team battle to the end, but wondered where that urgency was at earlier times in the game.

"We were playing for keeps there (at the end), give the guys credit," he said. "… I thought tonight we could have maybe had a better shooting mentality. I think we were trying to make the pretty plays instead of drilling the puck to the net. I think we could have done that a little bit more earlier, and as the game went on we started to do that and we started to get some chances."

ONE-TIMERS: Pulock's goal ended a string of 10 straight scoreless power plays for the Wheat Kings, who went 1-for-4 with the man advantage on Saturday … Tri-City was 1-for-3 on the power play … Americans G Eric Comrie made 28 saves … Attendance was 4,009 … Brandon scratched C/RW Daniel Asham (flu), D Rene Hunter, C/LW Kord Pankewicz, C/LW Quintin Lisoway and D Riley Van Horne … The Wheat Kings play the first road game of their trip Tuesday (7:30 p.m., CKLQ) against the Medicine Hat Tigers … D Brett Skinner, a Brandonite, has joined the Central Hockey League's Allen Americans.

» rhenders@brandonsun.com

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