Wheat Kings slip past Royals

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This article was published 28/10/2014 (4353 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Known for their ability to rack up goals, the Brandon Wheat Kings showed on Tuesday night they can also grind out wins when necessary.

Defenceman Ryan Pilon scored the winning goal with 8:26 to play and added an assist as the Wheat Kings improved to 3-1 on their West Coast Coast road trip with a 3-2 win over the Victoria Royals. The win moved Brandon (11-3-1-0) into a tie for first place in the Eastern Conference with the Medicine Hat Tigers (11-2-1-0).

"We haven’t had a one-goal victory this year," Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. "So it was the tightest game that we have been in. We gave up 10 shots on goal in the second and third period combined, so I thought that was positive. And we stayed patient and were able to get the winning goal midway through the third."

Czech import Richard Nejezchleb, making his first appearance of the Western Hockey League season, and rookie Duncan Campbell also scored for the Wheat Kings. Ivan Provorov set up two goals, including the winner by his defence partner, Pilon.

Travis Brown and Axel Blomqvist replied for the Royals (8-7-1-0), whose winning streak was snapped at four games.

Specialty teams were the story of the first period, with the teams combining for six power plays and scoring one goal each with the man advantage. Brown opened the scoring on a point shot, before Nejezchleb returned the favour by tipping in Provorov’s shot from the blue-line.

The teams combined for 34 shots (19-15) in the first period, but the game tightened up considerably from there as they totalled only 23 shots in the final two frames.

Campbell gave the Wheat Kings their first lead of the night in the second period, but Blomgvist replied shortly afterward as the Royals got a 3-on-1 down low on Brandon goalie Jordan Papirny, who finished with 22 saves.

Pilon put the game away in the third, taking a Provorov pass, stepping in from the slot and wristing a shot past Royals netminder Coleman Vollrath.

"When (Pilon and Provorov) are playing well they control the game," McCrimmon said. "It was a real heads-up play on the winning goal; Pilon had his head up, found an opening and put a good shot in the for the winner. … They log a lot of ice, they move the puck very well and I think we need them to play well for us to play well."

The Wheat Kings will now start working their way back, visiting the Vancouver Giants on Wednesday (CKLQ, 8:30 p.m.) before finishing the seven-game trip with two games in Alberta.

ONE-TIMERS: Pilon (three goals, 15 assists) is tied with Kelowna’s Madison Bowey (six goals, 12 assists) for the scoring lead among WHL defencemen, with Provorov (seven goals, nine assists) third … Vollrath made 29 saves … Brandon was 1-for-5 on the power play, while Victoria was 1-for-3 … With Nejezchleb back in the lineup after being returned by Hartford of the AHL last week, the Wheat Kings scratched Latvian LW Rihards Bukarts, who leads the team and is tied for third in the WHL in scoring, due to the import limit … Brandon also scratched LW Ty Lewis (broken arm, week-to-week), LW Tanner Kaspick, D Mark Matsuba and D Mark Taraschuk … Three Wheat Kings — Kaspick, C Nolan Patrick and D Kale Clague — will leave the team on Wednesday to play for Canada at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Sarnia, Ont. … The Giants are last in the B.C. Division at 6-7-0-0.

» rhenders@brandonsun.com