Wheat Kings rally but fall to Warriors

The Brandon Wheat Kings spotted the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors a four-goal lead and fell just short of the comeback, losing 6-4 in front of a large opening-night crowd of 4,281 at Assiniboine Credit Union Place on Friday.

Casey Brown scored twice, with Pavel McKenzie, Ethan Semeniuk, Colt Conrad and Nolan Paquette adding singles for Moose Jaw (1-0-0-0), while Chase Surkan scored twice and Jordan Gavin and Gunnar Gleasman also sniped for Brandon (0-1-0-0).

The teams meet again tonight at Temple Gardens Centre at 7 p.m. (CDT).

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said too many things weren’t done well enough by his Western Hockey League club.

“It was disappointing for sure,” Murray said. “We gave up way too much and weren’t ready defensively. It comes down to doing your job. We had a large number of guys in the first half of the game — probably six, eight guys — who just weren’t ready to play. Maybe there were some nerves and stuff like that.

“For a lot of them, it was their first experience, but it just goes to show how hard this league is. If you have some passengers, it’s hard to win.”

Surkan agreed.

“We have to clean up those first two periods for sure,” Surkan said. “I think in the third period we had pushback because we were down. If we play like that from the start, we win that game.”

The visitors took the lead three minutes 55 seconds into the game when Riley Thorpe sent a long from pass his own faceoff dot to the far blue-line where to Brown grabbed it, skated in down the wing and snuck a shot under Brandon goalie Jayden Kraus.

Brandon tied six minutes later when the rookie forward Surkan contributed his first WHL goal on a rebound past Moose Jaw goalie Matthew Hutchinson after Easton Odut and Grayson Burzynski both had opportunities.

“It’s obviously a confidence booster for sure,” Surkan said. “It’s good to get the first one under my belt and hopefully it continues all season long.”

Moose Jaw retook the lead 12:54 in after a terrible turnover in the slot when McKenzie beat Kraus on a backhand deke, and then, to make a bad period worse, Moose Jaw created a turnover in the neutral zone and Semeniuk banged home a rebound to make it 3-1.

After a disjointed Brandon power play early in the second period, Moose Jaw made it 4-1 on a pretty three-way passing play when Brown lifted the puck past Kraus, and they crafted a four-goal lead with a second left on a power play when Steven Steranka found Carter on the back door for a tap-in goal at the 6:43 mark.

The hosts showed their first signs of life in a long while two minutes later on a two-on-one when Jaxon Jacobson and Gavin moved the puck back and forth and Gavin blasted the puck into the empty net.

The Wheat Kings had a glorious chance soon after with a 32-second five-on-three but didn’t get a shot on net, instead patiently moving the puck for a single great chance from the slot that was eliminated by the catching hand of Hutchinson off the stick of Burzynski.

Brandon inched back within a pair 16:20 into the period when the puck hit the back boards and bounced to the side of the net to Gleasman, who lifted his second chance past Hutchinson.

That brought the team and the fans back into the game, with the Wheat Kings pressing the play but failing to get any closer after 40 minutes.

Brandon forward Nick Johnson celebrated what he thought was a goal 1:45 into the third period after a scramble in front when with the puck under Hutchinson. The play went to a video replay and was judged to be no goal, as the referees had initially signalled.

Kraus did his part to keep the game within reach when he stopped a short breakaway 4:52 into the final frame, and was very good on a penalty kill to keep it 5-3.

The Wheat Kings edged back within a goal on the power play with 4:52 remaining when Gavin made a sensational pass to Surkan on the back door and the rookie fired in his second goal of the game.

Brandon pulled Kraus with 1:53 remaining and took a timeout with a faceoff in the Moose Jaw zone. The Wheat Kings had chances but the visitors put the game away when Paquette sent a shot up the middle that found the empty net with 30.1 seconds remaining.

“We had some real good chances I thought in the last half of the game,” Murray said. “We did some things offensively that we would expect. I thought we had some real good looks in the third period to tie it up. It’s unfortunate, but looking back at the game, we have to be a lot better defensively, especially off the rush.”

Kraus made 34 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Hutchinson stopping 40 shots for the Warriors. Brandon went 1-for-4 on the power play, with Moose Jaw scoring once in three chances.

Moose Jaw head coach Mark O’Leary was understandably pleased with his group.

“I really liked our start,” O’Leary said. “Coming off the year that we did last year, all the talk has been about making this year different and to get something different and to do something different, and I thought our guys worked, we competed, we stuck together and rolled four lines and six D.

“As the game wore on, I thought we got a little bit sloppy in terms of losing our depth in the offensive zone and not being as firm and sure as we needed to be with the puck, and when you do that and give a team like Brandon opportunities off the rush, they can make you pay. Overall, I’m really happy with our start here. It’s something to build on.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured D Merrek Arpin, plus healthy scratches F Ben Binder Nord and D Cam Allard, and pro campers F Carter Klippenstein and F Brady Turko … The season-opening ceremonies started a few minutes early, the game actually began at 7:10 p.m. … Washington Capitals prospect Lynden Lakovic was a scratch as he attends the NHL club’s main camp … Brandon’s first penalty came 13:20 into the season when Dylan Ronald was flagged for hooking to prevent a short breakaway. The Wheat Kings killed it … The Wheat Kings entered the game with a 7-2-1-0 record in home openers against the Warriors since the franchise moved to Moose Jaw in 1984 … The crowd for the home opener was the largest for a home opener since the 2019 game drew 4,959 in a 3-2 loss to the Winnipeg Ice … Brandon somehow ended up with two of the three stars … Luke Mistelbacher led the Wheat Kings with eight shots on net … The game took two hours, 22 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 35-30.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com