Bjarnason, Michels lead Wheaties past Raiders
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/02/2024 (573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Carson Bjarnason made 32 saves, including a penalty shot, and Matteo Michels scored twice as the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings beat the Prince Albert Raiders 3-2 in Western Hockey League action at Art Hauser Centre on Thursday.
Sixth-place Brandon (28-22-5-1) received its other goal from Jayden Wiens, with Aiden Oiring and Niall Crocker replying for seventh-place Prince Albert (26-26-1-3) in front of a crowd of 2,636. It was the fifth of eight meetings between the teams, with the sixth coming on Saturday. Brandon has a game against the Saskatoon Blades sandwiched in the middle on Friday in their final three-in-three of the season.
Brandon general manager and head coach Marty Murray said it was a terrific effort by his club.
Brandon Wheat Kings defenceman Luke Shipley (27), left to right, joins teammates Caleb Hadland (10), Nolan Flamand (91) goal scorer Jayden Wiens (14) and Quinn Mantei (8, obscured in the background) after they scored 26 seconds into their Western Hockey League game against the Prince Albert Raiders at the Art Hauser Centre on Thursday evening. (Nathan Reiter/Prince Albert Daily Herald)
“I thought it was a real high-character effort,” Murray said. “We had a good meeting today about our woes on the road and as well, as we’ve played at home, we haven’t played near as well on the road, and I thought the guys put forth a pretty gritty effort tonight in a tough barn.”
Just like their last trip to Prince Albert — a game that ended up being a 7-3 loss for the visitors — Brandon opened the scoring in the first minute. Wiens jumped on a rebound of a shot by Caleb Hadland, and put it into the empty net behind Prince Albert goalie Max Hildebrand 26 seconds in.
In the fast-skating game that seemed almost devoid of whistles for the first 40 minutes, the teams traded chances until Prince Albert had its best one 6:59 into the second period. Wheat Kings defenceman Jackson DeSouza was forced to haul down Raiders forward Harrison Lodewyk after he cut through the middle on a breakaway and the 18-year-old forward from Red Deer was immediately awarded a penalty shot.
Unfortunately for him, Lodewyk mishandled the puck as he made his move and Bjarnason easily swept it away to keep the hosts off the board.
“That was huge,” Murray said. “I thought Barney was really good throughout the night. He did a really good job of managing the game, and giving us whistles when we needed whistles. That penalty shot was a huge point in the game.”
Brandon got a big insurance goal 2:02 into the third period following an icing call against Prince Albert.
Off the faceoff, Dominik Petr cleanly won the puck back to Michels, who ripped a shot over the blocker of Hildebrand from the circle. Brandon put Prince Albert onto their third power play 6:09 into the third period when DeSouza roughed up a Raider after the whistle, and the hosts responded when Sloan Stanick’s shot hit Oiring and went in. Just four minutes later, Michels went in on a two-on-one with Nolan Flamand and when he received a pass, promptly one-timed the puck into the top of the net to restore the two-goal lead.
It proved to be an important goal.
The Raiders pulled Hildebrand for the extra attacker with more than two minutes remaining, and Crocker’s shot with 14.7 seconds left hit a Brandon defender and went in to make it 3-2. The hosts managed to get the puck back into the Wheat Kings zone but simply ran out of time.
Hildebrand turned aside 21 shots for the Raiders. Brandon went 0-for-2 on the power play, with Prince Albert scoring once in three chances.
Murray said Michels, who led the Wheat Kings with seven shots on net, had a really good outing.
“I thought that was his best game as a Wheat King,” Murray said. “It’s easy to look at the scoresheet and see he scored two goals, but I thought he earned them. His compete level was really strong all night. He won a lot of battles and blocked shots. He was really solid from start to finish.”
ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured forwards Roger McQueen, Nick Johnson, Joby Baumuller and Hayden Wheddon, none of whom made the trip … Dylan McFadyen, 15, backed up Bjarnason with Ethan Eskit out of the lineup with a lower-body injury … Brandon defenceman Charlie Elick served a one-game suspension for a kneeing major he took on Saturday … Top prospect Ryder Ritchie returned to the lineup for the Raiders. He was hurt in a knee-on-knee collision before Christmas and missed 21 games … The game took two hours, 20 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 24-23.
» pbergson@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @PerryBergson