Hitmen end Wheat Kings streak on road

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This article was published 12/01/2025 (249 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Wheat Kings saw their five-game winning streak on the road come to an end on Sunday afternoon as they fell 4-2 to the Calgary Hitmen in Western Hockey League action at Scotiabank Saddledome.

Carson Wetsch scored twice and David Adaszynski and Ben Kindel also sniped for Calgary (24-11-3-1), which won its sixth game in a row and 11th straight on home ice during a game in when it celebrated its 30th anniversary. Luke Shipley had both goals for Brandon (19-13-3-2) in front of a crowd of 4,607.

Brandon sits in a tie for sixth place in the Eastern Conference, eight points up on the ninth-place Red Deer Rebels and five points back of the fourth-place Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Brandon general manager and head coach Marty Murray said a slow start wasn’t helpful.

“I didn’t like our first 40,” Murray said. “We pushed a little harder in the third period. I thought we didn’t generate enough offence but found a way to still be in the game. The difference was probably at the end of the second period when they got two in the last three minutes to go up 3-1.

“I thought we had a better push in the third with a goal and had a couple of real good looks to tie it up and just came up short.”

The Hitmen, who were big buyers in the WHL trade market over the last month, nearly found some early offence three minutes into the game from a longtime Calgary veteran when Oliver Tulk rang a shot off the iron off a partial two-on-one.

As the game went on, Brandon killed a pair of penalties and had shorthanded opportunities on the second one, but gave up the opening goal off a faceoff loss in their own zone. Adaszynski won the puck back to defenceman Axel Hurtig and he put a shot on net that hit the pad of Brandon goalie Carson Bjarnason and bounced into the slot, where Adaszynski deposited it into the top of the net.

That proved to be a recurring theme in the game, with Calgary dominating the faceoff circle by an incredible margin of 48-20. It was 37-10 after two periods.

“It was big,” Murray said. “You want to start the puck: Possession is huge. We addressed that after both the first and the second and at the end of the game we pushed and had some zone time, and ending up winning some faceoffs. It’s not rocket science, it goes hand in hand. When you start without the puck all night, you end up chasing it back and chasing the game all night.”

After an opening period in which the hosts had largely dictated the play, Brandon evened the game up with 20.7 seconds remaining. They managed to knock down a clearing attempt in the Hitmen zone and Nolan Flamand got the puck over to Shipley. With Carter Klippenstein screening Calgary goalie Daniel Hauser, the defenceman fired home his eighth goal of the season.

Bjarnason made his best save of the second period 7:22 into the second period when Tanner Howe forced a turnover and went in on a long breakaway but the big goalie stayed with his Team Canada world junior teammate on the deke.

The Hitmen took the game over late in the second period with some hard work behind the Brandon net.

They took their second lead at the 16:54 mark on an unforced error by the Wheat Kings, who turned the puck over. Bjarnason reached for it but was unable to control it and Kindel extended his point streak to 23 games when he swept it into the empty net.

Just 51 seconds later, the Calgary forechecker Howe beat a Brandon defender behind the net and sent the puck into the slot for a one-timer by Wetsch that made it 3-1 for the hosts.

Bjarnason stopped Carson Birnie on a breakaway early in the third period to keep his team in the game, and it was a key save.

Brandon had a 63-second five-on-three power play seven minutes into the period and hadn’t accomplished much when Shipley picked up the puck off a shot block and wired another shot onto the far side past Hauser’s glove with nine seconds remaining in the two-man advantage.

The Wheat Kings nearly tied the game soon after on the second power play when the puck lay near the Calgary goal-line with forward Carter Klippenstein right there, but Hauser sprawled out with his arm along the ice to deny a sure goal. Brandon went back to the power play with 5:37 remaining, but Joby Baumuller took an interference penalty on a pick play seven seconds later to make it four-on-four instead.

With the Wheat Kings down a goal late, they pulled Bjarnason with 97 seconds remaining and an offensive zone face-off after an icing. After some incredible pressure, Wetsch scored into the empty net with 11.7 seconds left to seal the win.

Bjarnason made 36 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Hauser stopping 23 shots for the Hitmen. Brandon went 1-for-4 on the power play, with Calgary unsuccessful in five chances.

“They were good,” Murray said of his penalty killers. “That’s a really good power play with high skill on both units, but particularly the first one. I thought our guys did a good job of getting the job done when we needed it. We did a good job with our sticks and a lot of times your best penalty killer is your goalie.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured forwards Roger McQueen and Easton Odut, plus healthy scratch Adam Belusko … Calgary’s star defenceman Carter Yakemchuk, a prospect of the Ottawa Senators, is out week to week with a lower-body injury … Nick Johnson took a heavy hit that drew a penalty late in the third period and didn’t return, but he stayed on the bench … Shipley, who led the Wheat Kings with four shots on net, has points in nine of his last 10 games … The game took two hours, 24 minutes to play … Brandon continues to travel west as they begin their trip through the B.C. Division starting Wednesday against the Victoria Royals at 9:05 p.m. CST … The Wheat Kings left after the game with an overnight stay in Kamloops planned.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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