Hurricanes eliminate Wheaties in five

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This article was published 05/04/2025 (194 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Wheat Kings ran out of miracles at VisitLethbridge.com Arena on Friday, falling 5-2 to the Lethbridge Hurricanes in Game 5 and losing their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series 4-1.

Brayden Yager, Jordan Gustafson, Noah Chadwick, Logan McCutcheon and Brayden Edwards scored for Lethbridge, with Brandon receiving its goals from Quinn Mantei and Joby Baumuller in front of a Western Hockey League crowd of 4,731.

Baumuller returned to the lineup but forwards Roger McQueen, Carter Klippenstein, Easton Odut and defencemen Merrek Arpin and Adam Belusko were all out for Brandon, who dressed callups Cam Allard and Isaac Davies to ice 18 skaters.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said the series was a lot closer than 4-1 might indicate.

“It really stings to lose in five,” Murray said. “I really thought we deserved better. I didn’t think it was a 4-1 series. I think we deserved better in Game 2 here and we deserved better in Game 3 in Virden or at least I thought we should have come in here tied 2-2 tonight, and then it’s a best-of-three series.

“We didn’t, and when you find yourself down 3-0 in a series, it’s an uphill battle. I was proud of our effort in Game 4 to extend it. I think we ran out of gas and took too many penalties, whether they were deserving or not. It’s hard to chase the game like that.”

Brandon extended the series with a 6-4 victory over Lethbridge at Virden’s Tundra Oil and Gas Place on Wednesday evening after the Hurricanes won the first three games by scores of 6-3, 4-3 and 3-1.

One of Brandon’s stated goals going into Game 5 was to have a quick start. Instead, Yager was given a penalty shot 70 seconds into the game when defenceman Luke Shipley got his stick in on him as he tried to shoot on a breakaway.

Brandon goalie Ethan Eskit calmly made a blocker save on the player who beat him shorthanded in Game 4.

The Wheat Kings handed the Hurricanes a power play three minutes later and Yager found the top corner to take an early lead.

Brandon tied the game 96 seconds later on a shot by Mantei from the blue-line. As the puck arrived, overage forward Nolan Flamand cut across the crease, drawing the attention of Lethbridge goalie Jackson Unger, who reached out to smack him with his blocker.

The referees, Brian MacDonald and Mike Campbell, made an immediate statement they weren’t going to abide any nonsense, calling four minors in the first six minutes, including three before the ensuing faceoff after the Brandon goal.

Unlike the Hurricanes, however, the Wheat Kings weren’t able to even get a shot on net in their first opportunity against the league’s best penalty killers in the regular season.

Brandon got another glorious chance when Lethbridge forward Shane Smith launched into the head of Brandon forward Caleb Hadland as he took a shot in the slot, drawing a major and game misconduct.

Brandon made Smith pay two minutes later when Gavin leaned into a shot from the slot and Baumuller tipped it in.

The other good news for Brandon was that Hadland returned to the game in the second period after heading back to the dressing room following the hit.

“In the first period, I thought we were quite good,” Murray said. “We played a good road game. We were right there. We were up 2-1 after one and it was kind of a textbook first period. We gave up 10 shots.”

But that was the high-water mark for the Wheat Kings, who were outshot 43-14 and outscored 4-0 in the final 40 minutes.

The Hurricanes tied the game three minutes seven seconds into the middle frame off the rush when Gustafson went hard up the middle to the net and was fed with an outstanding pass by Kooper Gizowski that he tipped past Eskit.

Lethbridge had shown the ability to dominate throughout the series, and the momentum definitely swung in their direction, in part because Brandon handed them back-to-back power plays midway through the period.

While they killed them, Brandon took penalties eight seconds apart late in the period, and with their playoff lives potentially hanging in the balance, they had to kill an 83-second five-on-three man advantage to start the third period.

Brandon won the draw at centre ice and sent the puck down the ice but the Hurricanes set up in the Wheat Kings zone and it took Chadwick just 33 seconds to send a shot past Eskit to restore the Lethbridge lead.

“Penalties played into it,” Murray said. “We took way too many penalties and lost our focus there a little. When you do that, some guys get tired because they’re playing too much and other guys get kept out the game. Lethbridge smelled some blood there. For me, the turning point was the five-on-three there to start the third.”

The Hurricanes nearly made it a two-goal lead a minute later but Eskit was able to sprawl out with his pad keep the puck out, and later he came across to deny Kash Andresen when he was left all alone on a two-on-one.

But on the latter opportunity, the Wheat Kings couldn’t clear the zone and McCutcheon found the back of the net 2:51 in as Lethbridge took a 4-2 lead on their 37th shot.

It didn’t help when Mantei took a high-sticking penalty two minutes later and Nolan Flamand was assessed a 10-minute misconduct.

It looked like the Hurricanes scored again just after the penalty ended — the goal light and goal horn came on and Gizowski celebrated — but the puck went back down the ice. The play was whistled down and the play went to a long video review that showed the puck hit the crossbar and post and stayed out.

Brandon did some aggressive penalty killing on Lethbridge’s seventh man advantage and it near paid off when Marcus Nguyen beat Unger but not the post as it hit the iron but stayed out.

The Wheat Kings, needing two goals, pulled Eskit with 3:06 remaining, and it took just 33 seconds for Lethbridge to find the empty net for an extra insurance goal when Edwards sent a shot down the ice from in front of his own goal.

Lethbridge simply shut down their defensive zone in the third period, outshooting the Wheat Kings 22-4 in the final frame and 53-26 overall.

Eskit made 48 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Unger stopping 24 shots for the Hurricanes.

“He was really solid,” Murray said of his goalie, who replaced starter Carson Bjarnason after Game 3. “One of the things that everybody loves about him is that he’s a real competitive kid. He gave us a chance. I think we gave up 20 shots in both the second and the third and he kept it close, especially on the power play. You can’t ask for anything more from him. He was a warrior tonight.”

Brandon went 1-for-2 on the power play, with Lethbridge scoring twice in eight chances.

Elsewhere on Friday, there are now four series finished. The Medicine Hat Tigers eliminated the Swift Current Broncos 4-1 and the Victoria Royals beat the Tri-City Americans 4-1. The Calgary Hitmen dispatched the Saskatoon Blades in four games earlier in the week.

All things considered, Murray said he was proud of his group.

It was a season of adversity for the Wheat Kings, who didn’t have a single game in the pre-season, regular season or playoffs when everyone was available to them due to a never-ending raft of injuries and other absences. Even so, they went 38-23-4-3 for a .610 winning percentage, and locked down the fifth spot in the Eastern Conference.

“You think back to the season and the resiliency they showed,” Murray said. “There were plenty of nights we were quite shorthanded and we played a lot of the year without some players, and somebody always seemed to rise to the occasion. Finishing over .600 considering all the injuries that we had is a feather in the cap of the kids.

“They worked hard, they stuck with it. Even to get some camaraderie with the lines, it was tough to get anybody together because guys were out of the lineup so much.”

ICINGS: Lethbridge forward Leo Braillard missed Friday’s contest after getting by a puck just below the eye in Game 4 in Virden … The Hurricanes were given four embellishment penalties in the series … Jaxon Jacobson and Gavin led the Wheat Kings with four shots each on net … The game took a lengthy two hours, 43 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Lethbridge 32-28 … Brandon was handed three 10-minute misconducts in the third period … Brandon’s three graduating overagers, Nguyen, Shipley and Flamand, were named the three stars.

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