Wheat Kings sweep pair from Broncos

Luke Mistelbacher scored and added a pair of assists against his former club as the Brandon Wheat Kings beat the visiting Swift Current Broncos 5-3 in Western Hockey League action at Assiniboine Credit Union Place on Saturday.

Brandon (37-24-1-0) received its goals from Jordan Gavin, Luke Mistelbacher, Jaxon Jacobson, Chase Surkan and Brady Turko, with Hudson Darby, Trae Wilke and Parker Rondeau replying for Swift Current (13-42-4-4) in front of a crowd of 3,450.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said his club, which welcomed captain Caleb Hadland back to the lineup and then promptly lost young forward Ryan Boyce, did what it needed to get two points.

“I thought the first two periods were just OK,” Murray said. “We’re battling and just trying to keep our heads above water here with guys getting a lot of ice with injuries and stuff like that. It’s a grind. In the first two periods, we had some zone time but just didn’t get the puck to the net and Swift did a pretty good job of keeping us to the outside and denying some opportunities at the net.

“I thought we did a better job in the third period of getting pucks and people to the net, and our goals reflected that.”

In a marketing gimmick, the Wheat Kings were rebranded the Wheat City Walleye for the weekend series, while the Broncos were playing under the Lake Diefenbaker Slough Sharks monicker.

Brandon won Friday’s game 4-3 in a shootout.

“I think that’s just the main thing moving forward, doing enough to win,” Turko said of the two games. “Obviously a home-and-home with Swift is a lot of travel for us, that’s 14 hours on a bus, which is quite a long time, so being able to get four points is big for us”

It was the final games against the Broncos for Mistelbacher and defenceman Grayson Burzynski, who came over to the Wheat Kings in a blockbuster deal last May.

“It was pretty cool,” Burzynski said. “Being able to spend the day with my billets, who gave me so much the four years I was there, it was so nice seeing them and spending some time with them, and obviously beating them back-to-back night feels pretty good.”

The Broncos opened the scoring four minutes nine seconds into the game after a Wheat Kings turnover when Wilke’s shot was deflected in the slot by Darby, beating goalie Filip Ruzicka cleanly.

Brandon’s hard luck with injuries resurfaced around that time when Boyce aggravated a previous lower-body injury, which meant the hosts were suddenly down a goal and a forward.

“That’s unfortunate,” Murray said. “We kind of wanted to ease Hads (Hadland) back into it, even though he really didn’t do that himself. He went both feet in. To lose Ryan early — I think he only had a couple of shifts in him — it hurts and you’re asking guys to do an awful lot.”

The Wheat Kings tied the game with 13.7 seconds left in the opening frame when Mistelbacher found Gavin with a cross-ice pass and he beat Swift Current goalie Aiden Eskit, the younger brother of former Wheat Kings goalie Ethan Eskit.

Brandon took its first lead 6:09 into the second period on their third power play — after two largely ineffective attempts in the first period — when Jacobson found Mistelbacher in front for the overage forward’s 40th goal of the season.

They returned the favour early in the third period when Brandon sent Swift Current to a 64-second, five-on-three man advantage. With two seconds left in the first penalty, Wilke found a top corner to knot the game 2-2.

Just after the second penalty ended, however, Prabh Bhathal made a perfect feed to Jacobson and he fired a high shot over the left-handed Eskit’s glove to restore the Brandon lead.

The goals came 66 seconds apart.

Then, 69 seconds later, Surkan jumped on a rebound for his first goal since Dec. 19 to make it 4-2 with just over 11 minutes left.

“I felt like he’s been close,” Murray said of Surkan. “Last night he had a few looks, and you could sense his frustration. It’s not easy to go through dips as a 16-year-old, especially when you have a history of scoring very consistently. “I was real happy for Chase. I thought he was around it, had some good looks and that was a big goal. It was the game-winning goal and even after he scored, I thought he had some jump in his step.”

The game wasn’t over just yet, however.

Rondeau made it 4-3 with a goal on a long breakaway with 8:01 remaining, and Swift Current continued to threaten, narrowly missing on a two-on-one. Just as things began to look troubling for the hosts, Turko deflected a point shot by Daniil Skvortsov with the toe of his stick with five minutes left to make it 5-3, and the Broncos never seriously threatened again, even after pulling Eskit late.

“It was a good entry and puck recovery,” Turko said of the goal. “It went up to the point and Dani made a good shot and I was able to get a touch on it.”

Ruzicka made 27 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Eskit stopping 25 shots for the Broncos. Brandon went 1-for-4 on the power play, with Swift Current scoring once in three chances.

Swift Current assistant coach Roshen Jaswal said his club played pretty well.

“We worked hard,” Jaswal said. “We were resilient, just like yesterday, coming back and battling hard. They have a good group, a high-octane group and at times we struggle with that defensively and keeping some of their stuff at bay, but I was really proud of how we worked and the way we battled back and didn’t give up until the end.”

The win moved the fifth-place Wheat Kings within two points of the fourth-place Calgary Hitmen, who have a game in hand and who Brandon visits as part of an Alberta road swing on Wednesday, and five points clear of the sixth-place Saskatoon Blades, who have played one more game.

“It was huge, huge,” Burzynski said of the victory. “We’re kind of looking down the barrel at the next game, which is Wednesday against Calgary. That’s probably our biggest game of the season. I’m really looking forward to that one because it will kind of shape if we’re getting home ice or not and that will be pretty big.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured D Merrek Arpin, D Dylan Ronald, F Easton Odut, F Carter Klippenstein and F Joby Baumuller. They were also without F Gunnar Gleasman, who drew a misconduct after the game on Friday … Hadland threw a massive clean hit in the first period on Colton Alain that enraged the defenceman so much he slammed his stick on the boards … Swift Current came into the game with a record of 3-24-2-2 on the road … Gavin and Turko led the Wheat Kings with four shots each on net … The game took two hours, 18 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Swift Current won 29-26 … Brandon’s Alberta trip begins against Calgary on Wednesday at 8 p.m. (CDT), then moves onto the Red Deer Rebels on Friday at 8 p.m., and the Edmonton Oil Kings on Saturday at 8 p.m.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

 

SATURDAY
Wheat Kings 5, Broncos 3
First Period
1. Swift Current, Darby 17 (Wilke) 4:09.
2. Brandon, Gavin 16 (Mistelbacher) 19:47.
Penalties — Rocak SC (holding) 6:12, McGregor SC (boarding) 10:02.
Second Period
3. Brandon,Mistelbacher 40 (Jacobson, Burzynski) 6:09 (pp).
Penalties — Johnson SC (holding) 5:02, Turko Bdn (holding) 7:44, Dingman SC (roughing) 15:53,
Third Period
4. Swift Current, Wilke 21 (unassisted) 6:31 (pp).
5. Brandon, Jacobson 23 (Bhathal, Mistelbacher) 7:37.
6. Brandon, Surkan 19 (Wilson, Boehm) 8:46.
7. Swift Current, Rondeau 8 (Ročák) 11:59.
8. Brandon, Turko 17 (Skvortsov, Gavin) 14:48.
Penalties — Hadland Bdn (charging) 4:32, Johnson Bdn (tripping) 5:29.
Shots on goal by
Brandon     8     8     14     —     30
Swift Current     10     9     11     —     30
Goal — Brandon: Ruzicka (W, 24-12-0-0). Swift Current: Eskit (L, 2-16-1-1).
Power plays (goals-chances) — Brandon: 1-4; Swift Current: 1-3.
Referees — Brian MacDonald, Ben Solomon.
Linesmen — Sean Dufour, Matt Granger.
Attendance — 3,450 in Brandon.