Warriors snap Wheat Kings’ winning streak

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This article was published 16/12/2023 (747 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rylen Roersma scored 80 seconds into the game to get the teddy bears flying but the Moose Jaw Warriors played Grinch to the Brandon Wheat Kings in their last game before Christmas, handing the hosts a 4-3 loss with a late goal at Westoba Place on Saturday.

Dakota MacIntosh scored twice, with Martin Rysavy and Brayden Schuurman also sniping for Moose Jaw (18-14-0-2), which snapped a five-game Western Hockey League losing streak.

Carter Klippenstein and Brett Hyland also scored for Brandon (16-12-4-1), which had its six-game winning streak snapped in front of a crowd of 4,309.

“It was really special,” Roersma said of the teddy-bear goal. “I had some wagers going on with my grandparents that I was going to get it. It’s really cool.”

The game started at 7:14 p.m., to give people a chance to get seated, which proved to be a great idea because excited fans didn’t have to wait long for the teddy bears to fly. Brandon pressed early and Roersma wired a shot past Moose Jaw goalie Jackson Unger on the second shift, scoring the third fastest teddy-bear goal in team history.

“I came off the bench and saw a play developing,” Roersma said. “Nolan (Flamand) came around the net with the puck and made a great pass to me and I saw an opening top right and let the puck fly and got lucky.”

Roersma scooped up a teddy bear and went to the bench for the traditional fly-by, but by the time he arrived his teammates had joined him on the ice to enjoy the moment.

“I’ve seen a few teddy-bear toss goals around the league and they pick up a bear and go through the line and I thought that was a good idea and tried to do it but everybody hopped on the ice,” Roersma said with a chuckle. “They were too excited I guess.”

After a quick cleanup, the game resumed at 7:25 p.m.

It took Moose Jaw a while to get going, with their first shot coming four minutes 20 seconds into the contest. Their best chance early came when Dakota MacIntosh was sprung for a breakaway but Brandon goalie Carson Bjarnason played him perfectly and he lifted the shot wide.

He scored soon after, however, when Brandon turned the puck over high in its zone and MacIntosh’s shot was swept into the net by the stick of sprawling Wheat Kings defenceman Jackson DeSouza, who was looking for the shot block.

“I thought we came out guns a blazin’,” Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said. “There’s excitement with the teddy-bear toss and I thought we came out really strong and almost kind of got deflated with that break a little. I thought we got back on our heels and Moose Jaw had a little jump.”

Klippenstein restored the lead 14:07 into the period when he skated down the left wing and sent a bad angle shot into the top of the net over the left-handed Jackson’s blocker.

“I had some speed coming through the neutral zone and I’ve been practising that shot a lot in practice, even today,” Klippenstein said. “I thought ‘Why not?’ and let it go and picked the right corner. It was a good goal to get.”

But Moose Jaw responded just 54 seconds later, with Rysavy pouncing on the rebound of a tip by Atley Calvert to make it 2-2.

“It was a see-saw, back-and-forth game,” Murray said. “When we scored our first two goals, we didn’t respond real well after and I think that’s something we talk about a lot, is the response after a goal for or against. I thought our response wasn’t great.”

Brandon narrowly missed retaking the lead before the period ended but Tre Fouquette’s shot from the point hit the crossbar.

The visitors took their first lead 19 seconds into the second period when MacIntosh squeezed a shot from the low slot through Bjarnason. In a scary play 29 seconds later, Brandon forward Nolan Flamand was upended by Moose Jaw’s Rysavy and went hard into the Moose Jaw goal post with his hip, but was able to get back to the bench under his own power after being looked at by athletic therapist Zach Hartwick.

He returned to the ice for his regular shift soon after.

Following a couple of inspired shifts, Brandon nearly tied it four minutes into the period but Caleb Hadland rang the puck off both posts. On Brandon’s second power play, which came midway through the period, Moose Jaw had the best chances, with Bjarnason denying Jagger Firkus and Rysavy on shorthanded breakaways.

Brandon had a slow start to the third period, with their first shot coming 4:29 into the period. Fortunately for the hosts, that was a tip by Hyland of a shot by Charlie Elick that squared the game 3-3.

The goal seemed to ignite the Wheat Kings, who had their best sustained offensive pressure since early in the contest. But when Brandon went to their fourth power play with 7:16 remaining, they never seriously threatened.

The winner came on a nondescript play with 2:55 left when Lucas Brenton found Schuurman in front of the net and he redirected the puck past Bjarnason for the winning goal.

“It was a back-and-forth game,” Murray said. “We got a big goal to tie it up in the third and had some real good looks, but just couldn’t find a way to get it in. Obviously the difference in the game was our play around our blue paint.

“We were light and standing upright with our sticks up at our waists and those end up costing you. It’s disappointing to go into the Christmas break on a loss like that but we’ve accomplished some good things here lately, and have to build off the good things and try to improve some of the things we need to do.”

Bjarnason made 26 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Unger stopping 27 shots for the Warriors. Brandon went 0-for-4 on the power play, with Moose Jaw unsuccessful in one chance.

With three forwards out of the Brandon lineup — Nate Danielson (world juniors), Dominik Petr (upper body, day to day) and Matt Henry (first game of two-game suspension) — the Wheat Kings called up 16-year-old Easton Odut and 15-year-old Jaxon Jacobson. Meanwhile, Moose Jaw was also without a pair of world junior players, defenceman Denton Mateychuk and forward Brayden Yager

“That’s also a really good team there,” Klippenstein said. “They’re missing a couple of top guys but so are we. We put together a good streak here before the Christmas and really showed what we can do. Aside from this game, it’s been a great last couple of weeks.”

On the other side, a relieved Moose Jaw head coach Mark O’Leary said it was a nice rebound for his club.

“We were obviously in a hole,” O’Leary said. “It was a tough stretch for us losing a few in a row. I just thought we were due for some bounces and we got some tonight, especially in and around their net. It was another one of those games.

“The Moose Jaw Warriors and Brandon Wheat Kings, there always seems to be a little bit of everything. It was close both ways but I thought it was a win we did deserve tonight. I think we earned it and it was a long time coming.”

Brandon’s players now head home for the Christmas break — with the exception of Russian defenceman Andrei Maliavan — with their next on-ice session set for Boxing Day. They won’t have long to wait for their return to action, since they host the Regina Pats on Dec. 27 to kick off a stretch of four games in six days.

But for now, the break is next on their agenda.

“It’s going to be really nice to recharge, reset and come back and start winning hockey games again,” Roersma said.

ICINGS: Brandon also skated without Maliavan (illness) … The crowd was Brandon’s second biggest of the year, trailing the 4,824 people who attended a game against the Saskatoon Blades on Oct. 28. It ranks 15th in Brandon’s teddy-bear toss attendance history … Roersma and Matteo Michels led the Wheat Kings with four shots each on net … The game took two hours, 27 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Moose Jaw won 35-31 … Former Wheat Kings forward Dawson Pasternak scored the teddy-bear toss goal for the Victoria Royals on Saturday.

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