Danielson, Bjarnason lead Wheat Kings past Cougars

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This article was published 13/10/2022 (1301 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two of the key players for the Brandon Wheat Kings came up with big performances in a tightly-contested road game on Wednesday night.

Nate Danielson had a goal and an assist each, while Carson Bjarnason turned aside 39 shots as the 3-2-1-0 Wheat Kings edged out the 3-4-0-0 Prince George Cougars in a 2-1 affair that was played in front of a crowd of 1,671 at the CN Centre.

The win was the second in a row for the Wheat Kings on their season-high eight-game road trip. They defeated the Calgary Hitmen by a score of 3-2 on Monday.

“I thought we did a good job of staying with the game and we found a way to win in the end,” Wheat Kings head coach Don MacGillivray said.

“We dug in at the start of the third period and we went to work. We got a nice power play goal to take the lead and our penalty kill was very good. Those are always good things to have happen when you are on the road.”

The Wheat Kings shorthanded unit was a perfect six-for-six in the contest, with their most impressive work coming in a 58-second five-on-three situation late in the first period.”

“That all begins with your goaltending and Carson’s had an outstanding start to the year,” MacGillivray said of the Carberry product, who also picked up his first career assist in the win on Brett Hyland’s game-winning goal.

“We also blocked a ton of shots tonight. Owen Harris has a lot of black and blue marks on him right now, but that just shows the hard work that he and the rest of the guys put in.”

Another key to the Wheat Kings triumph was that they were able to keep the Cougars’ top line of Koehn Ziemmer, Riley Heidt and Chase Wheatcroft off of the scoresheet.

“When they get free, they are extremely dangerous on the rush and when they start cycling (the puck) in the corners,” MacGillivray said.

“We got lucky a few times as they definitely had their chances to score, but I thought we did a good job of limiting their opportunities and being on the right side of the puck against them.”

Ziemmer — a potential late first-round pick in next year’s National Hockey League draft — had the best two chances of the opening frame.

He dangled his way by Wheat Kings forward Rylen Roersma before shooting a backhanded attempt wide of the net and was left looking at the ceiling a few minutes later after missing an open cage.

The Wheat Kings’ first quality chance of the night came at the six-minute mark of the second period, when Roger McQueen stole the puck from Wheatcroft in the Cougars zone and fired a shot that went off of the blocker of Tyler Brennan.

Moments after Wheatcroft tried to score with a nifty between-the-legs move, the visitor opened up the scoring with 4:44 left in the middle stanza.

After a Zakhar Polshakov shot bounced off of the skate of Cougars defenceman Keaton Dowhaniuk and onto the stick of Danielson, who wired a shot over the right shoulder of Brennan for his first goal of the campaign.

“Nate’s not a guy who is going to score 50 goals a year, but he’s going to be there to score those timely goals,” MacGillivray said.

“There’s so much more to him than his points though. He’s a 200-foot player and he can play at all ends of the rink in any situation.”

The Cougars evened things up nearly three minutes later, as Ethan Samson’s cross-ice pass found Carter MacAdams, who raced down the wing and shot the puck past Bjarnason’s glove hand.

A delay of game penalty for Samson at the 7:25 mark of the third period would set the stage for the game-winning marker.

Danielson took the puck in his own end, avoided a hit attempt by Cougars forward Carlin Dezainde and worked his way down the ice, where he found a streaking Hyland who slid the puck by Brennan to put the Wheat Kings back out in front and earn his second point of the night in the process.

Prince George nearly tied the game a couple of minutes later, however, as Noah Boyko made a nice pass in front to Ondrej Becher.

Bjarnason was just able to get a piece of the puck as it floated up in the air and landed on the top of the net.

The Cougars last chance at a tying goal were dashed with 99 seconds left on the clock as defenceman Hudson Thornton was called for holding as he attempted to slow down a rush by Wheat Kings forward Ben Thornton.

After an off day Thursday, the Wheat Kings return to action tonight as they square off with the 1-2-1-2 Vancouver Giants in a 9:30 p.m. affair at the Langley Events Centre.

Their road trip continues Saturday with an 8:05 p.m. tilt against the 1-7-1-0 Victoria Royals.

ICINGS: Nolan Ritchie was not in the lineup for the Wheat Kings on Wednesday and is considered day-to-day after he crashed into the end boards during Monday’s game in Calgary. Ritchie, who finished the contest against the Hitmen, will be re-evaluated ahead of tonight’s matchup with Vancouver … In addition to the veteran forward, the Wheat Kings were also without the services of Eastyn Mannix, Zach Turner and Matthew Henry … Gavin Schmidt, Tyson Buczkowski and Brandonite Cayden Glover did not suit up for Prince George … Cougars forwards Koehn Ziemmer and Chase Wheatcroft both saw their six-game point streaks come to an end in the loss … Carson Bjarnason became the first Wheat Kings netminder to record a point in a game since Ethan Kruger picked up an assist on Vincent Iorio’s power play goal in a 7-1 win over the Prince Albert Raiders on March 30, 2021 in Regina.

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