Wheat Kings come back to beat Warriors

Grayson Burzynski scored twice, including the game-winner, as the Brandon Wheat Kings defeated the Moose Jaw Warriors 6-4 in Western Hockey League action at Temple Gardens Centre on Tuesday.

Brandon (10-9-1-0) received its other goals from Carter Klippenstein, Joby Baumuller, Jaxon Jacobson and Max Lavoie, with Lynden Lakovic, Riley Thorpe, Gage Nagel and Connor Schmidt scoring for Moose Jaw (10-11-1-0) in front of a crowd of 2,311.

It was the fourth meeting between the clubs this season, and the fourth to hit double-digits in goals.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said another high-scoring affair was to be expected.

“If you follow the season series between the Warriors and Wheat Kings, it’s been like that for four games,” Murray said, adding an early deficit took resolve to claw back from.

“It’s natural to be deflated a bit. you’re a minute in and they’re up 1-0.

“We’re probably down 2-0 in the first 10 minutes of the game, so it’s a wake-up call for us. I thought the Klippenstein line scored two big ones to get us knotted up there, so that was huge to get out of the first period tied 2-2.”

Moose Jaw barely needed a minute to beat Brandon goalie Filip Ruzicka as Lynden Lakovic fired a wrist shot in front and Semeniuk tipped it off Lavoie’s stick and into the net on the first shot of the game.

Cam Allard nearly tied it four minutes later on a one-timer from the point that took a deflection and caught the outside of the right post.

The fortunate break for the Warriors nearly led to another when Pavel McKenzie dumped the puck in and it took a funny bounce off the boards, then Ruzicka’s pad right to Kash Andresen for a Grade-A chance. Ruzicka squeezed his pads together to keep it out.

However, on the ensuing faceoff, Colt Carter barely kept the puck in the zone, skated left behind the goal line, and fired a pass through a few bodies to a wide-open Thorpe to make it 2-0 just 6:31 in.

Brandon finally settled in defensively and it translated into offence. Klippenstein played a stretch pass to Jordan Gavin, who sped through two defenders and took a shot Moose Jaw goalie Chase Wutzke couldn’t corral. Klippenstein was rewarded for his effort with a puck on a silver platter to blast into the back of the net.

Klippenstein wasn’t done there. He took the puck at centre ice and turned on the jets, beating two defenders down the left board before making a perfect centreing pass to Baumuller, who tipped it home to tie it 2-2 with two minutes left in the frame.

“If you look at eveery goal scored, you wind it back a little bit and it’s what happened 10, 15 seconds before the goal? Quite often it’s a strong defensive play that might not get on the scoresheet,” Murray said.

“It’s a big part of the success of our team and I thought that line in particular did a real good job getting us doing and gave us momentum throughout the game.”

The Warriors once again owned the opening minutes of a period when they turned the Wheat Kings over in the neutral zone less than four minutes in.

And again, it was Carter setting up the offence. He caught Brandon on a line change with McKenzie leading a 2-on-0 rush. McKenzie backhanded the puck to Nagel, who flipped the puck over Ruzicka’s glove.

Both goaltenders were on full display during a wild stretch six minutes into the frame. Landen McFadden was sprung on a breakaway, but Ruzicka denied him, then Jacobson found himself in alone on Wutzke, but the goalie was equal to the task.

Soon after, Casey Brown was called for charging after delivering a massive hit to Brady Turko.

Brandon’s vaunted power play was much more dominant on its second try, controlling the puck in Moose Jaw’s end for most of it, but was unable to knot it up.

Brandon’s penalty kill stepped up five minutes later, keeping the Warriors at bay before Jacobson carried the puck in front of the goal and flipped a shot that was blocked straight to Burzynski to rip into the net and tie it 3-3.

It didn’t last long.

Towards the end of Moose Jaw’s second power play, they sprung a 4-on-1, and while Daniil Skvortsov made a desperate diving attempt to take Thorpe’s pass away, Lakovic scooped up the puck and found Schmidt back door with three minutes left.

The hosts took a 4-3 lead into the third.

Brandon went on another power play 44 seconds into the final frame, but the best chance came at the other end when Ruzicka had to slam the door shut on Lakovic.

Jacobson tied it 4:24 into the period when Hadland backhanded a pass from the corner straight to his tape. The star centre one-timed it just inside the right post.

Brandon took its first lead of the game with 6:25 remaining when Jacobson centred for Hadland, who fired the puck at Wutzke’s left pad. The rebound went straight to Burzynski, just like in the second, and he wired it home to make it 5-4.

The Wheat Kings kept the Warriors quiet for the next few minutes, and fended off a frantic final few minutes before Lavoie sailed an empty-netter the length of the ice with six seconds remaining.

“That was big, getting a couple of goals there and ultimately the empty-netter,” Murray said.

“We outscored them 3-0 and on top of that we had a couple of really big penalty kills in the last half of the first period. It was a good team effort, espeically in the third period.”

Ruzicka made 27 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Wutzke stopping 24 shots for the Warriors.

Brandon went 0-for-4 on the power play, with Moose Jaw scoring once in three chances.

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured D Merrek Arpin, D Adam Hlinsky, F Ryan Boyce and F Easton Odut … Wutzke was acquired from the Red Deer Rebels on Nov. 1, with former starter Matthew Hutchinson dispatched to the Regina Pats the same day … The game took two hours, 21 minutes to play … Brandon visits the Prince Albert Raiders on Friday and the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com