Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
Some lessons in the Western Hockey League can only be learned the hard way.
The Brandon Wheat Kings took a 2-0 first-period lead but let up in the second, losing all of their momentum and eventually the game.
Landon Oslanski blasted in the winning goal with a one-timer from the point, 1:17 into overtime, as the Everett Silvertips beat the Wheat Kings 3-2 Friday night at Westman Place.
“We played well in the first period,” said Wheat Kings rookie John Quenneville, who scored his first WHL goal and added an assist. “We didn’t come out in the second at all, and it cost us the game.”
Jens Meiller also had a goal and an assist for the Wheat Kings (5-2-0-1), who host the Tri-City Americans tonight before leaving on their West Coast road trip on Monday.
Manraj Hayer and Trent Lofthouse had the other goals for the Silvertips (2-5-0-1), who came into the game with the worst record in the Western Conference, but didn’t look like it in the second period when they outshot the Wheat Kings 19-8.
“(The Silvertips) competed a lot harder in the second period and we got our backs against the wall and we didn’t react to it,” Wheat Kings head coach Dwayne Gylywoychuk said. “We had some opportunities and then all of a sudden we took some undisciplined penalties, some lazy penalties, because we weren’t competing and they just kinda controlled the whole second period.”
Quenneville opened the scoring 5:26 into the game, collecting the puck after Taylor Cooper pried it loose from an Everett defender and deking out Silvertips goalie Daniel Cotton.
“(It was a) real bittersweet Friday night,” said Quenneville, who also got his first WHL stitches, courtesy of a puck to the face in the third period. “It’s nice to get your first goal and all, but not a very good team game.”
The same line added to the lead as Quenneville stole the puck behind the net and sent it into the slot where Meilleur fired a shot to the top corner behind Cotton, who would not be beaten again in a 23-save effort.
Making his first start of the season, Cotton had to come out big to keep the score 2-0. After Alessio Bertaggia hit the post on a breakaway, the sprawling Silvertip netminder made point-plank stops on Jason Swyripa and Bertaggia.
Hayer scored on a two-on-one in the second period, which could have been worse than it was, given the onslaught faced in the frame by Brandon goalie Curtis Honey, who had a 30-save night.
Brandon tightened up defensively in the third, giving up only five shots, but one of those was Lofthouse’s long wrister that found the top corner behind Honey.
Oslanski’s slapper from the point was the only shot of overtime, and although it was the decisive blow, Gylywoychuk believes the Wheat Kings made their bed much earlier than that.
“I think it’s going to be important for us to realize that in order for us to compete every night, we’ve got to do the hard things,” he said.
“We’ve got to make sure work ethic’s our number-one priority.”
Gylywoychuk also pointed to the power play as a disappointment.
The Wheat Kings went 0-for-6 with the man advantage, including a run of Everett penalties in the third period that put Brandon on the power play for all but nine seconds of a four-minute-41 second span. The Silvertips were also scoreless on the power play, going 0-for-5.
ONE-TIMERS: Attendance was 3,834 … Brandon scratched C/RW Daniel Asham (flu), C/LW Kord Pankewicz, C/LW Quintin Lisoway, D Colton Waltz and D Riley Van Horne … D Connor Cox made his debut with Everett after being waived by Saskatoon on Wednesday … Silvertips scratches included No.1 G Austin Lotz (groin, week-to-week) … Vancouver has sent a conditional fifth-round WHL Bantam Draft pick in 2015 to Medicine Hat for LW Kale Kessy, who is in the midst of serving a 12-game suspension … Former Brandon captain Shayne Wiebe made the AHL’s Connecticut Whale and played in their season-opening 6-4 loss to Bridgeport … Another ex-Wheat Kings captain, Ryan Craig, will wear the ‘C’ for the Springfield Falcons of the AHL this season.
» rhenders@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition October 13, 2012
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Some lessons in the Western Hockey League can only be learned the hard way.
The Brandon Wheat Kings took a 2-0 first-period lead but let up in the second, losing all of their momentum and eventually the game.
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Some lessons in the Western Hockey League can only be learned the hard way.
The Brandon Wheat Kings took a 2-0 first-period lead but let up in the second, losing all of their momentum and eventually the game.
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