Brandon drops first game at Memorial Cup

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This article was published 21/05/2016 (3575 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RED DEER, Alta. — The Brandon Wheat Kings started strong and finished stronger but it wasn’t enough as they fell 5-3 to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in the first game of the MasterCard Memorial Cup for both teams at the Enmax Centrium on Saturday.

Timo Meier’s two goals and a pair of Rouyn-Noranda goals 63 seconds apart in the first period proved to be the turning point for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champions in a game sure to be remembered for a breakaway goal by John Quenneville of the Wheat Kings that will become a staple on Canadian Hockey League highlight packages.

Brandon head coach and general manager Kelly McCrimmon said his team didn’t respond quickly enough after giving up the two late goals in the first period.

“If you’re going to have a first period that doesn’t go well, then your final 40 minutes have got to be flawless,” McCrimmon said. “I didn’t think we did a good job with that part of it. We weren’t fast enough and our discipline wasn’t where it needed to be to win in a tournament playing against good teams like it was tonight. I was encouraged with the third period that we played harder but we didn’t have that force earlier in the game.”

Brandon opened the scoring 2:44 into the first period when the puck popped out front to Reid Duke, who quickly shot it in from the slot.

“We had a good first few minutes there but it’s too bad that we didn’t sustain that,” Duke said. “It was nice to see the pushback that we had in the third.”

It went south for Brandon with six minutes left in the period.

Zachary Lauzon, freshly out of the penalty box, sent A.J. Greer in with a pass on a two-on-one and he guided the puck by Brandon starter Jordan Papirny on the resulting breakaway. 

Brandon then gave up two goals in just over a minute. The first, a shot by Bruno-Carl Denis, bounced off a Wheat Kings defender in front of the net and the second came off an odd carom off the backboards that went to Huskies forward Timo Meier, who quickly scored. 

“When they scored the first goal, to me that had been coming for a few shifts,” McCrimmon said. “We didn’t respond good enough to get to the intermission 1-1 or 2-1.”

After Jayce Hawryluk took a double minor for high sticking, Rouyn-Noranda extended their lead to 4-1 with 6:31 left in the second period. The goal, shortly after Brandon defenceman Ivan Provorov was unable to convert on a short-handed breakaway, came off the stick of Philippe Myers, courtesy of a screen by Greer.

“I thought we had a solid 40 minutes but the last 20 minutes we kind of let go a little bit,” said Greer, who left Boston University to join the Huskies mid-season. “But we got the win and that’s what’s important.” 

Meier made it 5-1 four minutes later with a quick snapshot that got by Papirny’s glove.

The Wheat Kings made it a game in the third when they outshot the Huskies 20-4 and carried the play for most of the period.

Brandon closed the gap to 5-2 when Tyler Coulter knocked in a rebound 8:07 into the third period but the best was yet to come for Wheat King fans on a night their team would lose. 

Quenneville made it a two-goal game when he scored on a ridiculous move four minutes later. He faked the shot, put his stick between his legs and sent the puck over Rouyn-Noranda goalie Chase Marchand for a highlight goal.

“We had a bad start,” said Quenneville, who later called his goal nice but didn’t have much else to say about it. “We got a goal (by Duke) but we weren’t playing good hockey at all. We were really flat, had no speed and it cost us the game.”

Rouyn-Noranda head coach Gilles Bouchard didn’t care for his team’s play late but was happy with the overall result.

“We played a good first and second period,” he said. “… In the third period we played with the score. It was 5-1 after the second period and we stopped (skating) and our mindset was not good. Two different things today. But at the end of the day we found a way to win the game and that’s most important.”

Papirny stopped 24 shots for the Wheat Kings, with Marchand making 38 saves for the Huskies.

ICINGS: The Wheat Kings’ healthy scratches were D Mark Matsuba, F Garrett Armour and F Caiden Daley. D Schael Higson is no longer with the team … The Huskies scratched F Rafael Harvey-Pinard and D Johnatan Legault … Brandon went 0-for-5 on the power play, while Rouyn Noranda was 1-for-5 … In Brandon’s three previous Memorial Cup appearances, they beat QMJHL representative Hull 9-2 in 1995, lost to Granby 3-1 in 1996 and beat the Moncton Wildcats 4-0 in 2010 … The Wheat Kings next play on Monday when they face the London Knights at 7 p.m. The Huskies face the Rebels on Sunday at 6 p.m. Brandon closes out against Red Deer on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

 

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