Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
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Jordan Wyton of the Moose Jaw Warriors dekes Brandon Wheat Kings goalie Corbin Boes to score despite the best efforts of Wheat Kings defenceman Rene Hunter on Saturday night at Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw, Sask.
The Brandon Wheat Kings were brought back to earth with a resounding thud on Saturday night.
After opening the Western Hockey League season with four straight victories, the Wheat Kings were thumped 6-1 by the host Moose Jaw Warriors to wrap up a two-game Saskatchewan road trip.
Sam Fioretti paced the Warriors (2-2-0-0) with three goals and an assist, while Bryson Gore, Carter Hansen and Jordan Wyton also scored for the winners.
Eric Roy replied for the Wheat Kings (4-1-0-0).
Assistant coach Darren Ritchie said the Wheat Kings were outworked from the start of the game and he believes there was a lesson to be learned from the loss.
"I think our guys understand that they’ve got to prepare properly," he said.
"We’ve been successful because of the hard work that we’ve put in every game. It might not be all 60 minutes, but for the most part we’ve come to the rink ready to play and worked hard and got rewarded for it. (On Saturday) we didn’t, and you see what happens when you don’t prepare properly."
After never trailing by more than a single goal during their first four games, the Wheat Kings found themselves quickly down by three on Saturday. Fioretti notched the first two goals, opening the scoring on a power play 2:50 in, and Gore added to the lead midway through the first period.
It was 4-0 by the time Roy got the Wheat Kings on the board in the second period, but the Warriors responded with two more of their own, including Fioretti’s hat-trick goal with 18 seconds left in the frame.
Those were the last 18 seconds Wheat Kings starting goalie Corbin Boes would play as he was replaced to start the third period by Curtis Honey after stopping just 17 of 23 shots.
Honey was perfect in the third period, stopping all 10 shots he faced.
The Wheat Kings went 0-for-6 with the man advantage, failing to convert on three power plays during the pivotal first period. The Warriors, on the other hand, went 3-for-4 on the power play.
"We had opportunities on our power play to get ourselves back in that game early and we didn’t execute like we should be," said Ritchie, whose team starts a four-game homestand on Friday night at Westman Place against the Portland Winterhawks.
"That’s unfortunate and disappointing. And also on the penalty kill, we had the chances to kill (them) off and get some momentum, which is what you need when you’re struggling to find your way. We needed to find a power-play goal or a (successful) PK to get us some momentum."
ONE-TIMERS: Rookie Moose Jaw G Justin Paulic made 18 saves … Wheat Kings RW Jayce Hawryluk andC John Quenneville got their first WHL points by assisting on Roy’s goal. It was also Hawryluk’s WHL debut after he missed the pre-season and first four games of the regular season with a concussion … Brandon scratched LW Richard Nejezchleb, RW Quintin Lisoway, LW Kord Pankewicz, D Colton Waltz and D Riley Van Horne … Warriors D Joel Edmundson, a Brandonite, had an assist in his return from a two-game suspension … Moose Jaw scratches included LW Justin Kirsch (suspension) … Medicine Hat acquired C Elgin Pearce, a 20-year-old who scored 21 goals last season, from Kootenay on Saturday for a fifth-round pick in next year’s bantam draft.
» rhenders@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition October 1, 2012
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The Brandon Wheat Kings were brought back to earth with a resounding thud on Saturday night.
After opening the Western Hockey League season with four straight victories, the Wheat Kings were thumped 6-1 by the host Moose Jaw Warriors to wrap up a two-game Saskatchewan road trip.
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The Brandon Wheat Kings were brought back to earth with a resounding thud on Saturday night.
After opening the Western Hockey League season with four straight victories, the Wheat Kings were thumped 6-1 by the host Moose Jaw Warriors to wrap up a two-game Saskatchewan road trip.
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