Wheat Kings golden against Silvertips

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This article was published 19/10/2018 (2814 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On a night when the Brandon Wheat Kings honoured a team legend before the game, the goals came in twos as they beat the visiting Everett Silvertips 5-2 in Western Hockey League action at Westoba Place on Friday.

Jordin Tootoo, who wore No. 22 as a Wheat King, announced his retirement from the National Hockey League before the game, and was saluted with his family, drawing a long standing ovation from the 4,346 fans in attendance for the ceremonial puck drop.

Brandon (6-1-1-1) took 2-0 and 4-1 leads as it received two goals from Lynden McCallum, with Stelio Mattheos cashing in on a late hat trick. Sahvan Khaira and Connor Dewar replied for Everett (6-4-0-0).

“They always play a really hard game and we knew that coming in,” Mattheos said. “It was definitely kind of that playoff style, it felt like, and we got the job done. Jiri (Patera) was awesome and it was really good to see the fourth line contribute too.”

Wheat Kings head coach David Anning said the team’s penalty killing was key in the first period, Patera was excellent in the second and they played very well as a group in the third.

“It’s a good win for our team,” Anning said. “We were playing a hockey club that we played once last year and once this year and both games were very similar in that it was intense and it was an uptempo, fast-paced game. I like the way Everett plays. They do a lot of things very well.”

Last season, Everett beat Brandon 4-0 at home.

The Wheat Kings took their first lead eight minutes into the first period on Friday when McCallum managed to send his second-chance shot through Everett starting goalie Dustin Wolf for his first regular-strength goal this season. The momentum quickly appeared to turn, however, when McCallum and Ben McCartney took simultaneous minors 22 seconds later. The Silvertips pressed but were unable to score.

The Wheat Kings made them pay. Just 19 seconds after Brandon killed off the two-minute, five-on-three advantage, Mattheos launched a quick shot from the faceoff dot through traffic that Wolf never appeared to see, giving the Wheat Kings a 2-0 lead.

Everett buzzed for long stretches of the second period, keeping the puck in the Brandon end and creating repeated chances.

After Brandon finally took a penalty, Khaira’s shot from the high slot 13 minutes into the middle frame caught Brandon starting goalie Jiri Patera struggling to get back into position after a scramble. The puck went through his legs to make it 2-1.

McCallum and his teammates responded 82 seconds later, however, when the 18-year-old ripped a shot from the wing on a Brandon rush that went over Wolf’s shoulder and in.

“It does feel pretty good but more importantly we had a good bounce-back game after a loss,” McCallum said of his two-goal effort. “That shows good character in the room.”

The Wheat Kings widened the lead to 4-1 on a terrific pass across the ice from Chase Hartje to Mattheos, who one-timed it for his 10th goal of the season with two minutes left in the frame.

But before the period ended, Brandon was victimized again by Everett’s power play when Dewar popped in his eighth of the season to make it 4-2.

Any chance of tying the game late evaporated with 5:32 remaining in the third period when Dewar took nine minutes in penalties, including two minors, a major and game misconduct, to put the Wheat Kings on the power play for the rest of the game.

Mattheos earned the hat trick on an unselfish play by Linden McCorrister. With 32 seconds left and the Everett net empty, the 20-year-old forward from Peguis had the puck all alone in front, and elected to pass to Mattheos for his third of the game.

“That was a great teammate move,” Mattheos said. “Anyone would want the puck in that situation but it was a great job by Linden to have his head up and make that play. That’s how you build chemistry with your teammates. Everyone sees that and respects it.”

Patera made 36 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Wolf stopping 26 shots for the Silvertips.

Brandon went 1-for-4 on the power play, with Everett scoring twice in six chances.

Everett general manager Garry Davidson of Souris said it hurt when the team failed to cash in on its first four power plays, and although they played well in the second, Brandon capitalized on its chances for the win.

“If you give a couple of good players a good opportunity to score … Stelio Mattheos buried two good shots,” Davidson said. “And I’ll be honest with you, one of our issues at the start of this year is our lack of finish, and I think we saw a little bit of that in the second period. But we have to give credit to their goalie too, he played very well.”

ICINGS: Brandon was without injured defenceman Schael Higson, along with healthy scratches F Ty Thorpe and D Chad Nychuk … Everett scratched Alex Mear, Peter Melcher, Sean Richards, Conrad Mitchell and Bronson Sharp … Everett has three Manitobans on its roster, Connor Dewar of The Pas, backup goalie Danton Belluk of Lorette and Reece Vitelli of Winnipeg …Silvertips general manager Garry Davidson of Souris was in attendance …Friday’s game was the first of six for Everett as it travels through the East Division. After taking Saturday off, the Silvertips play the other five teams in the East in seven days … The Wheat Kings are back in action tonight when they host the Calgary Hitmen at 7:30.

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