Hitmen go up 3-0 on Wheat Kings

VIRDEN — The visiting Calgary Hitmen took a stranglehold in their Western Hockey League quarterfinal series on Tuesday, beating the Brandon Wheat Kings 3-1 in Game 3 at Virden’s Tundra Oil and Gas Place.

Calgary received its goals from Andrew Molgachev, Ethan Moore and Landon Amrhein into an empty net, with Luke Mistelbacher replying for Brandon in front of a crowd of 1,292.

The Hitmen won 1-0 in overtime in Game 1 last Friday, and 6-5 in overtime in Game 2 on Sunday.

With the win, they are now up 3-0 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with a chance to earn the sweep on Thursday in Virden.

“The pucks didn’t go our way,” said rookie forward Prabh Bhathal, who had an assist and was one of his team’s better players. “We didn’t execute on our chances and they did. Now we’re down three in the series and have to work a lot harder.”

A potential Game 5 would be in Virden on Friday at 7 p.m., and if necessary, Game 6 is back in Calgary on Sunday at 6 p.m. Game 7 on Tuesday at 8 p.m.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said his team simply wasn’t good enough.

“I thought we struggled trying to get the puck out of our own end, execution,” Murray said. “They are a quick team and we have to be able to adjust to that pressure they put on us. I thought our execution was off.

“We had some chances to score and just didn’t and they get one off a skate. It’s such a fine line in the playoffs. One of the strengths of our team all year has been our depth to score, and right now we have one line going and we need four to have success.”

Brandon had been slow to start the two previous games, getting outshot 16-8 and 15-3 in the first periods in Calgary, and not much changed on Tuesday as the Hitmen earned a 16-6 edge.

Calgary had the first four shots on net before Brandon finally put the puck on net five minutes 20 seconds into the game.

After Brandon goalie Filip Ruzicka denied Calgary forward Harrison Lodewyk on a breakaway and they had a scrum along the end boards, the teams skated 4-on-4 at the 13:34 mark.

Calgary goalie Eric Tu had to make a terrific glove save to keep Brandon off the board, and then Wheat Kings defenceman Grayson Burzynski rang a shot off the post moments later.

The Hitmen hit the scoreboard at the 18:39 mark after a turnover in the neutral zone came back up the ice on three-on-two and Molgachev snapped a shot over the shoulder of Ruzicka.

Brandon’s power play, which was 0-for-6 coming into the game, had it’s only opportunity midway through the second period and immediately gave up a breakaway to double overtime hero Ethan Moore that Ruzicka handled.

The Wheat Kings had an outstanding chance 14 minutes into the middle frame after Mistelbacher jumped out of the penalty box, took a stretch pass and tried to beat Tu between the legs on the breakaway.

The young goalie got just enough of it to keep it out, and the puck turned back up the ice, with Moore beating Ruzicka after a bounce off a skate in front to give the visitors a 2-0 lead. The hosts responded just 72 seconds later.

Off the rush, Jaxon Jacobson sent a pass across to Mistelbacher, who tapped it behind Tu to bring the hosts back within a goal.

The teams traded chance in the third period, and it looked like Brandon tied with 12:50 left when Bhathal hammered a shot from the slot off the crossbar that ricocheted down but stayed out.

“I thought it went in, and then I thought the rebound right after went in,” Bhathal said. “I don’t know. It just didn’t got my way today.”

On a Calgary rush midway through the period, Molgachev cut hard towards the net and while Ruzicka made the save, he was knocked out of the net and his stick went flying.

He also quickly learned his skate blade had been knocked off, and crawled desperately back towards the net as the puck stayed in play. Happily for the hosts, it stayed out of the net and the play was soon whistled down.

Ruzicka made his 45th save with 7:16 left when Keaton Jundt was left all alone in front, but the big goalie didn’t give the Calgary forward much.

Brandon pulled him for the extra attacker with 2:06 remaining in regulation and a faceoff in the Calgary zone, but unlike the Hitmen on Sunday when Julien Maze banked a shot in off captain Axel Hurtig to tie the game, it was unable to manufacture a miracle.

The game effectively ended with 1:44 left when Amrhein found the empty net. With nothing to lose, Brandon pulled Ruzicka again as soon as they gained possession but neither team scored.

Calgary head coach Dustin Friesen liked his group’s effort.

“It was a tight game,” Friesen said. “There was lots of chances either way, I thought we got better as the game went on and we put some pressure underneath them. It’s probably not a 2-1 game five-on-five with the number of chances both teams had but I liked how we dug in, in the third period and made it hard to get to the inside and I thought we had good O-zone time too.”

Ruzicka made 48 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Tu stopping 35 shots for the Hitmen.

Brandon went 0-for-1 on the power play, with Calgary unsuccessful in two chances.

Murray didn’t hesitate when asked what we wanted to see from his group on Thursday.

“Some desperation,” Murray said. “You look at the stuff we’ve done all year and we’ve been able to score goals and have contributions from everybody. We have to leave it all on the ice, we have to break pucks out, we have to manage pucks better and be ready to score. We had some good looks around the net and I know the shots were lopsided, but we had some looks where we have to be ready to put the puck into the net.”

He can likely count on the young Winnipegger Bhathal.

“The first one, it felt like we didn’t play as well as we should have,” Bhathal said. “That game went to them, which is fine, but I felt that second game was ours, we should have had that one, and even today we had more than enough chances to win this game so I feel like we should be up in the series right now.

“Now it’s do or die and we’re more than good enough to crawl back into this series.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured D Merrek Arpin, F Easton Odut, F Carter Klippenstein, F Jimmy Egan, D Dylan Ronald and D Daniil Skvortsov, plus healthy scratch F Ahmad Fayad … Wheat Kings prospect Axel Gleasman and his Okanagan Hockey Colorado squad rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the third period to beat the top-ranked St. Louis Blues on Sunday afternoon for a 3-2 overtime victory that earned them the 2026 USA Hockey 16U national championship. Axel, who is the younger brother of current Wheat Kings forward Gunnar, set up Jackson Woodward’s overtime goal … Mistelbacher and Joby Baumuller led the Wheat Kings with five shots each on net … The game took two hours, 25 minutes to play after starting at 7:04 … In the faceoff circle, Calgary continued to dominate for the third game in a row, winning 34-26.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com