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Broncos hold off Wheat Kings

By: Rob Henderson

Saturday, Mar. 9, 2013 at 11:56 PM | Comments: 0

As strange as it sounds, a crossbar was the difference between earning points in a fourth straight contest and a three-game losing streak for the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Brandon was forced to settle for the latter on Saturday night at Westman Place as Jayce Hawryluk's shot at the final buzzer clanged off the iron and the Swift Current Broncos held on for a 3-2 victory over the Wheat Kings, who had lost their previous two games in shootouts.

While their desperate last-ditch effort fell short, it was the second period that doomed the Wheat Kings as they gave up three goals, enough to undo strong efforts in the first and third frames.

"It's obviously devastating," said defenceman Eric Roy, who scored Brandon's first goal. "We worked our butts off. Our second period tonight wasn't our greatest. Our first and third periods we were really working hard. We outworked them in the third, we just didn't have the bounces. The hockey gods weren't on our side."

Blue-liner Dillon Heatherington led the Broncos (34-29-3-4) with a goal and an assist, while fellow rearguard Reece Scarlett and captain Adam Lowry also scored. Geordie Maguire rounded out the scoring for the Wheat Kings (22-39-4-4), who sit last in the Western Hockey League's Eastern Conference.

The Wheat Kings limited the Broncos to only five shots in the first period and took the lead as Roy slapped a shot to the top corner behind Swift Current goalie Eetu Laurikainen. The Broncos killed a Brandon power play to start the second period, then notched goals 1:51 apart — an off-speed backhander from Scarlett that beat Wheat Kings netminder Curtis Honey through the five-hole and Heatherington's power-play point shot, which was deflected into the Brandon net. Lowry scored the winner with only 34.8 seconds left in the second period, driving to the net and tapping in Jay Merkley's setup.

"I thought the goal late in the (second) was the one that really ended up killing us in the end," Wheat Kings head coach Dwayne Gylywoychuk said. "I thought in the third period we really came out with some more intensity. We need to have that for three periods."

The Wheat Kings outshot the Broncos 11-3 in the final frame. They got back within a goal as Maguire scored on a Nick Walters rebound 4:13 into the period, but were unable to net the equalizer against Laurikainen, who finished with 26 saves.

The Wheat Kings head into the final week of the regular season with three games left, starting Wednesday against the Prince Albert Raiders (7 p.m., Westman Place) and concluding with a weekend home-and-home versus the Moose Jaw Warriors.

ONE-TIMERS: Merkley had two assists … Honey made 15 saves … Maguire's goal was his first in 24 games … Heatherington left the game after taking a hard hit from Hawryluk late in the second period … The Broncos were 1-for-2 on the power play, while the Wheat Kings were 0-for-3 … Attendance was 4,202 … Brandon scratched C/LW John Quenneville (lower body), C Tyrel Seaman (concussion), RW Marek Kalus (sick) and recently arrived LW Jesse Gabrielle.

» rhenders@brandonsun.com

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