Wheat Kings outgun Blazers

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This article was published 24/10/2014 (4318 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Wheat Kings’ high-flying offence claimed another victim on Friday night.

The Wheat Kings ran their record to 2-0 on their West Coast road trip with an 8-5 win over the Kamloops Blazers. John Quenneville played his first game in three weeks, returning from an injury to notch a goal and three assists as the Wheat Kings (10-2-1-0) maintained their four-point hold on first place in the Western Hockey League’s East Division.

"Good to have him back in our lineup, only his fifth game of the year and only the first night all year that we’ve had access to our full lineup," Wheat Kings head coach/general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. "So it was good to have him return and he made a real contribution today."

Jayce Hawryluk also had a goal and three assists, with Rihards Bukarts adding a goal and two helpers. Reid Duke notched two goals, including an empty-netter, while Tim McGauley, Jesse Gabrielle and Ivan Provorov also scored for the Wheat Kings, who have found the net 33 times in their last four games, all wins.

Deven Sideroff scored three times for the Blazers (8-6-1-0), while league scoring leader Cole Ully dished out four assists. Luke Harrison and Ryan Rehill rounded out the scoring for Kamloops.

McCrimmon said the Wheat Kings still need to be better defensively, but added Friday’s game was a step up overall from Wednesday’s trip-opening 7-4 win over the Prince George Cougars.

"We were much better than Wednesday in Prince George, so I was encouraged by that," he said. "I thought we had some stretches tonight where we played real well."

After Sideroff opened the scoring only 1:04 into the game — on a centring pass that went off Quenneville’s stick — the Wheat Kings took the lead on goals 33 seconds apart by McGauley and Gabrielle.

The Blazers retook the lead before the first intermission on Sideroff’s second of the night and Harrison’s marker, but the Wheat Kings owned the second period as Bukarts, Duke and Provorov struck in a span of 3:07.

The Wheat Kings never gave up the lead again, but they didn’t exactly lock it down in the third, either, as the Blazers managed 15 shots and a pair of tallies, including Sideroff’s hat-trick goal.

After Rehill cut Brandon’s advantage to 5-4, Hawryluk helped keep the lead safe by scoring his team-leading 10th goal and league-leading fifth game-winner of the season. He also assisted on Quenneville’s insurance goal five minutes later.

The Wheat Kings continue their trip on Saturday night when they face the league-leading Kelowna Rockets (CKLQ, 8:30 p.m.), and McCrimmon said it’s a matchup the team is excited for.

"We’ve got one chance to play this team this season," he said. "They’re the class of the Western Conference. They have had real good teams for the past two or three years and I think this is a game that our guys are tremendously excited about. It should be a real good test for both teams."

ONE-TIMERS: Wheat Kings G Logan Thompson is 2-0 in his rookie season after stopping 29 shots … Blazers G Cole Kehler stopped 18 of 23 shots before being relieved by Connor Ingram, who made 14 saves on 16 shots … Both teams were 1-for-3 on the power play … Bukarts is on a nine-game point-scoring streak (seven goals, 13 assists), matching the longest in the WHL this season, while Brandon RW Peter Quenneville had two assists to stretch his point-scoring streak to seven games (three goals, 10 assists) and McGauley upped his streak to five games (two goals, four assists) … Wheat Kings D Ryan Pilon had three assists, and he and partner Provorov were both +5. Provorov has goals in four straight games (five goals) … Brandons’ scratches were LW Richard Nejezchleb (suspension), LW Ty Lewis (broken arm, week-to-week), LW Tanner Kaspick, D Mark Matsuba and D Mark Taraschuk … LW Tim Bozon made his season debut for Kootenay in the Ice’s 9-2 loss against Calgary on Saturday. Bozon had an assist in his first WHL game since a bout with meningitis last season. Ice D Rinat Valiev, who has been out with a knee injury, and Hitmen LW Jake Virtanen, who had an assist in his first game back from May shoulder surgery, also played for the first time this season. LW Taylor Sanheim of Elkhorn had two assists for Calgary.

» rhenders@brandonsun.com