Hitmen outwork, shut down Wheat Kings

The Calgary Hitmen shut down the Brandon Wheat Kings on Sunday, snapping their four-game winning streak with a 3-1 victory in Western Hockey League action at Assiniboine Credit Union Place.

Calgary (10-3-1-0) received its goals from Kale Dach, Kaden Meyer and Brandon Gorzynski, with Gunnar Gleasman replying for Brandon (6-7-1-0) in front of a crowd of 2,484.

“They compete,” Gleasman said of the Hitmen. “They’re a hard-working team and they’re young. They just work hard. I think we got outworked in that game and just have to come back firing next game.”

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray saw it the same way as Calgary held his club to just 10 shots in the first 47 minutes.

“They work,” Murray said. “They were all over us and smothered us. We tried to get away with being lazy and you saw how that worked out. We didn’t regenerate any offence and we were on our heels chasing the puck all night.”

The game’s furious pace was established quickly as the teams played seven minutes 11 seconds without a whistle, with both clubs enjoying significant chances.

The Hitmen opened the scoring nine seconds later off the rush, when Brandon Gorzynski set up Dach for a one-timer that left Brandon goalie Jayden Kraus with no chance.

The swift-skating, physical Hitmen dominated the shot clock in the opening 20 minutes, taking an 11-4 edge and enjoying most of the best chances.

The hosts looked better to start the second but the game’s first penalty was called when Wheat Kings forward Carter Klippnestein pulled the helmet off a Calgary defender following a whistle.

The visitors made it 2-0 when Meyer got his first WHL goal after his shot from the point hit a Wheat King penalty killer and skipped past Kraus.

It was the eighth time this season Brandon has fallen behind 2-0.

The Wheat Kings managed just six shots in the second period, the fifth time this season they managed six or fewer in a period. Two of them came on Sunday afternoon.

A Brandon club looking for a third-period comeback took a curious approach to the task, failing to get a shot on Calgary goalie Eric Tu for the first seven minutes, and then promptly taking another penalty.

It took the Hitmen just seven seconds to cash in on the power play, with Gorzynski putting the game out of reach with 12:15 remaining.

The Wheat Kings had their most dominant shift of the game shortly after they killed the penalty, but Tu stopped a dangerous shot by Jaxon Jacobson to extinguish the threat.

Brandon finally hit the scoreboard on their 14th shot when Gleasman pushed a defenceman into the goalie and hammered in a rebound for his second WHL goal. Gleasman’s goal came with his father Jason and grandfather Paul Ericson in the crowd.

“I just went to the net and was trying to find a rebound,” Gleasman said. “I was trying to get a stick in the play.”

Brandon sent Calgary to its fourth and fifth power plays in the final few minutes, and weren’t able to pull their goalie until there was under a minute left, and created some opportunities but failed to score.

“The challenge for us is that the teams work really hard, we have to match that intensity,” Murray said. “We’re 0-for against teams that work really hard — Edmonton, Saskatoon and now Calgary — so we have to up the ante and think about Calgary.

“One through 20, they all work and they all compete and stop on pucks. I told the guys after the game, that’s the new modern playing tough, is stopping on pucks and winning 50-50 battles. It’s not getting involved after the whistle. I thought we took four dumb penalties tonight.

“That’s not tough. Today’s tough is getting in hard on the forecheck and being relentless on the puck and unfortunately we didn’t have enough of that tonight.”

Kraus made 37 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Tu stopping 19 shots for the Hitmen.

Brandon didn’t have a power-play opportunity, with Calgary scoring twice in five chances.

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

“I thought our team played a pretty consistent game,” Friesen said. “I think we were pretty steady through the whole game. Brandon can score, we knew they had some firepower, so we really had to stick to our structure. Credit to them, the guys executed and played a hard game.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured D Merrek Arpin, D Adam Hlinsky, F Ryan Boyce and F Chase Surkan, whop is away at the U17 World Challenge … Calgary have held its opponent to 23 or fewer shots four times this season … Luke Mistelbacher turned 20 on Sunday … Klippenstein led the Wheat Kings with four shots on net … The game took a speedy two hours, 16 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 30-26 … The Swift Current Broncos visit Brandon on Wednesday as they play their 12th home game in 15 starts this season.

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