Wheaties weather comeback, win 7-3

Jordan Gavin, Joby Baumuller and Carter Klippenstein each scored twice as the Brandon Wheat Kings won their fourth game in a row with a 7-3 victory over the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes in Western Hockey League action at Assiniboine Credit Union Place on Wednesday.

Brandon (15-11-1-0) received its other goal from Luke Mistelbacher, with Easton Daneault, Hudson Kibblewhite and Luke Cozens replying for Lethbridge (10-20-0-1) in front of a crowd of 1,755.

“I think we came out really well,” Gavin said. “The first two periods were really good. When we got to the third, it was one of those games it was a little hard to get into. We just have to clean up some of those things in the third period but overall it was a good effort.”

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said his club, which scored seven goals against Lethbridge for the third time in three outings this season, had its ups and downs as the visitors made a determined charge in the third period.

“I thought the first 40 were pretty solid and we were in control,” Murray said. “You have to put games away and there were some weird ones. We’re playing four-on-four and a puck goes off our defenceman’s foot and we take a penalty when we handle the puck and then we’re careless with puck management.

“You blink and it’s 4-3. We had a little bit of desperation after that. I thought after they got that third one when we got playing again and got a little bit of a break on the Klippenstein goal and then I thought were fine after that.”

Brandon struck first one minutes 32 seconds into the game when Nick Johnson sent a stretch pass down the ice to Baumuller. The third-year forward calmly stepped across the blue-line, circled back and fired a shot over the shoulder of Lethbridge goalie Koen Cleaver. Johnson earned his 100th WHL point on the play.

Brandon widened the lead on another terrific play by Johnson. He intercepted a pass in the neutral zone, carried it in, flicked it out front to Baumuller, who sent it over to Gavin for his 10th goal of the season.

The hosts nearly extended the lead a minute later when defenceman Dylan Ronald hit the post. The puck ricocheted out, bounced off the back of Cleaver and was trickling towards the goal-line when Hurricanes defenceman Nathan Maloney swept it to safety.

Brandon made officially made it 3-0 off the rush when Surkan sent a crisp pass across to Mistelbacher, who fired a quick shot into the net from the slot 1:34 into the second period.

Lethbridge took a penalty 22 seconds later. Brandon kept the puck in the offensive zone for nearly the whole two minutes and made it 4-0 when Gavin got a quick pass down low from Chase Surkan, who earned the second of his three assists in the game.

“Obviously the first one it was a really good play by John to find Joby and then it was a pretty easy tap-in for me,” said Gavin, who may have shot the puck a combined five feet for his two goals. “It was the same kind of deal on the power play. Surks made a really pass to me. It was two pretty easy goals today.”

Cue the attempted comeback.

The Hurricanes finally hit the scoreboard 63 seconds into the final frame. On a Lethbridge two-on-one, Mistelbacher made an incredible desperation dive to stop a pass across the middle but Daneault picked up the puck and sent it back out front, where it bounced off the skate of Ronald and into his own net past goalie Jayden Kraus to make it 4-1.

The Hurricanes struck again four minutes later on a four-on-three power play when Kibblewhite jammed home a loose puck. The Wheat Kings then made a neutral zone turnover and Lethbridge headed in on a two-on-one, with Cozens firing a shot over the glove of Kraus and suddenly it was 4-3 with 11 minutes left on the clock.

With all the momentum in the world, Klippenstein took the wind out of the sails of his hometown club when he beat Cleaver between the legs with a harmless looking shot off the rush and suddenly Brandon had a two-goal lead again.

Mistelbacher earned his 200th career point with the assist.

Lethbridge pulled the goalie for an extra attacker with 2:52 left and a faceoff in the Brandon zone. After some nervous moments for the home side, Brandon extinguished the threat with 2:09 left when Baumuller found the empty net.

Just 28 seconds later, with the teams back playing five-on-five, Klippenstein tipped a shot by Nigel Boehm to close out the scoring.

“We tried to roll four lines tonight as much as we would,” Murray said. “We have a lot of hockey coming up here in the next week. It’s important to use the whole bench, and with that, I think we have the ability for four lines to put the puck in the net. We’re a team that can produce offensively and we do a pretty good of that.

“I would rather have not given up those ones in the third but I’m happy with the way we responded when the game got tight.”

Kraus made 21 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Cleaver stopping 37 shots for the Hurricanes.

Brandon went 1-for-1 on the power play, with Lethbridge scoring once in three chances.

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured D Merrek Arpin, D Adam Hlinsky and D Daniil Skvortsov, plus healthy scratches F Gunnar Gleasman and F Prabh Bhathal. All 14 forwards are now healthy … Mistelbacher led the Wheat Kings with eight shots on net … The game took two hours, 18 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 34-22 … The WHL announced Wednesday it’s holding a prospects game on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at the Langley Events Centre for National Hockey League draft-eligible players, with the Eastern Conference meeting Western Conference … The Wheat Kings host the Kelowna Rockets on Friday in their annual teddy-bear toss game. That’s their last home game before Christmas, with an impending Alberta swing that will see them meet the Edmonton Oil Kings on Sunday, the Red Deer Rebels on Tuesday, the Medicine Hat Tigers on Wednesday and the Calgary Hitmen on Friday.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com