Ethan Eskit shuts out Hurricanes in 6-0 win

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This article was published 20/01/2024 (608 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ethan Eskit made 37 saves for his first Western Hockey League shutout, Carter Klippenstein had a goal and an assist against his hometown team and Brett Hyland scored twice as the Brandon Wheat Kings beat the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes 6-0 at Westoba Place on Saturday.
Brandon (22-15-4-1) received its other goals from Nolan Flamand, Charlie Elick and Dominik Petr in front of a crowd of 2,670.
Lethbridge fell to 21-19-3-0, one night after beating the Pats 6-2 in Regina.
“It feels great but at the end of the day we play again tomorrow,” Eskit said with a smile after the game. “I just have to refocus. As a goalie, you can’t get too high and you can’t get too low. I’ll have fun and enjoy the next hour and then get ready for tomorrow and move on to the next page.”
Brandon also shut out Lethbridge on Oct. 11 when Carson Bjarnason made 36 saves. But since the starter from Carberry is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, the job is Eskit’s for the foreseeable future.
Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray certainly appreciated what the rookie netminder from Calgary accomplished.
“He was excellent,” Murray said. “He’s really come into his own as a young player in the league. His last 10 appearances have been really good and tonight was kind of the icing on the cake. He was fantastic. Especially early on, he made some big saves when the game could have gone the other way pretty quick. Right to the end, he made an unbelievable save on the power play to secure the shutout. It was a great night for Ethan.”
The visitors came out with a lot of pep but Brandon opened the scoring on their first sustained offensive pressure, three minutes 34 seconds in the first period. During a scramble in front of the Lethbridge net, the puck popped out to Hyland, who put a quick shot past helpless Lethbridge goalie Harrison Meneghin.
Murray has talked about his team’s need to score more goals on rebounds near the net when they struggled to score on some nights recently, and the message apparently got through.
“That’s huge,” Murray said. “One of the things we continue to preach is playing inside the dots and getting to those dirty areas, and there have been some nights where we have a lot of shots and don’t really get rewarded for it. You have to get to those areas, and I thought the Hyland goal early kind of set the tone for that and we continued to get there throughout the evening.”
The Wheat Kings were fortunate to maintain the lead through the next shift, with Hurricanes forward Kooper Gizowski beating Eskit but not the post. Lethbridge had another Grade A scoring chance later in the period but Eskit made a tremendous pad save after a terrible turnover in the Brandon end: Overage forward Dylan Sydor came in and the netminder was able to deny the attempted deke with his pad.
“It doesn’t totally impact on how the game is going to go but when you get a few saves at the start and it starts rolling, it definitely makes things easier,” Eskit said.
Murray said one of the keys to the win was denying Lethbridge a goal in the opening 10 minutes as they pressed and created chances.
“They came really hard,” Murray said. “It was two guys coming in on the forecheck and their D were pinching and we kind of struggled with that a little bit. We turned some pucks over and they got some good looks and Eskit made some good saves. Then we made some adjustments and I thought we made some better decisions on our breakouts in the middle and took what they gave us.
“At times when there was nothing, we flipped it out in the neutral zone and went for a footrace. I thought we adjusted well and weathered the storm in the first 10.”
Brandon extended the lead 11:38 into the second period. Meneghin made a pair of saves but Klippenstein jumped on the third chance for his seventh goal of the season.
“I felt like I wasn’t providing enough for the team so I was crashing the net and our line was getting energy that shift,” Klippenstein said. “The puck popped out to me and I was in the right spot and I put it in.”
Less than three minutes later, Flamand scored a power-play goal when the puck came to him at the side of the net off a blocked shot to put the hosts up three goals. The man advantage came off a reasonably rare goalie penalty when Meneghin was flagged for tripping.
The back-breaker came late in the second period.
Meneghin thought he had the puck after a shot by Klippenstein but it trickled behind him. It was swept away by Lethbridge forward Kash Andresen but the puck went straight to Elick, and he fired a bullet between Meneghin and Andresen to give Brandon a 4-0 lead.
Meneghin gave way to backup Brady Smith to start the third period, but not much else changed.
Just after completing a penalty kill that straddled the periods, Petr broke down the ice on a two-on-one, hesitated like he was going to pass and then fired a shot into the top corner.
The hosts made it 6-0 on their second power play — 12:45 into the third period — when Smith made a blocker save on McQueen but the puck went up in the air and was batted in by Hyland for his second of the game.
Lethbridge went to the power play with less than four minutes remaining and Eskit preserved his shutout by correctly reading a backdoor play and sliding across the net to stop a one-timer.
“He was on his game tonight,” Klippenstein said. “He kept us in, especially in the first period, with some unbelievable saves.”
Meneghin and Smith combined to stop 32 shots for the Hurricanes. Brandon went 2-for-2 on the power play, with Lethbridge unsuccessful in two chances.
“It’s definitely awesome to come out of here with a 6-0 win against Lethbridge,” said Klippenstein, who was facing the Hurricanes for the first time at home. “Being from there too and knowing some of the staff there, it feels even better.”
Lethbridge head coach Bill Peters said the lack of offensive success in the first period proved costly.
“I liked our start,” Peters said. “I thought we needed to get one early, and when we didn’t, it became a bit of an uphill climb. They didn’t give us much obviously and we had a hard time finding the net.”
That was certainly good news for Eskit, who turned 18 on Jan. 7. So was the play in front of him, with the young netminder crediting his teammates with their performance, which ensured fifth-place Brandon maintained a four-point lead on seventh-place Lethbridge.
“They played great,” Eskit said. “The energy was great. Everyone was battling hard and at the end of the day, we got the two points in the standings. I couldn’t be happier.”
ICINGS: Brandon also skated without F Matt Henry (suspension), F Jayden Wiens (illness) and D Seth Tansem (healthy scratch) … F Nick Johnson made his Brandon debut. He was part of the Nate Danielson trade and is wearing No. 26, which was also worn by Trae Johnson. They aren’t related … Brady Turko of McCreary made his WHL debut for Brandon … Eskit was backed up by 15-year-old Brandon prospect Dylan McFadyen of Winnipeg, who made 43 saves in the afternoon as his Interlake Lightning fell 5-4 to the U18 Wheat Kings. Fellow prospect Jaxon Jacobson had the winning goal and three assists … Brandon forward Hayden Wheddon had an assist to run his points streak to three games … McQueen led the Wheat Kings with five shots on net … The game took two hours, 24 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 43-27.
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Wheat Kings 6, Hurricanes 0
First Period
1. Brandon, Hyland 22 (McQueen, Mantei) 3:34.
Penalties — None.
Second Period
2. Brandon, Klippenstein 7 (Wheddon, Elick) 11:38.
3. Brandon, Flamand 11 (Roermsa, Maliavan) 14:20 (pp).
4. Brandon, Elick 4 (Klippenstein, Baumuller) 16:57
Penalties — Meneghin Let (tripping) 12:34, Mantei Bdn (cross checking) 19:27.
Third Period
5. Brandon, Petr 10 (Roersma, Shipley) 1:47.
6. Brandon, Hyland 23 (McQueen, Mantei) 12:45 (pp).
Penalties — Klippenstein Bdn (roughing) 4:22, Sydor Let (roughing) 4:22, Sydor Let (roughing) 11:35, Klippenstein Bdn (cross checking) 16:41.
Shots on goal by
Brandon     11     18     9     —     38
Lethbridge     11     15     11     —     37
Goal (shots-saves) — Lethbridge: Meneghin (29-25) (L, 18-12-2-0), Smith (20:00, third period) (9-7); Brandon: Eskit (37-37) (W, 7-6-0-0).
Power plays (goals-chances) — Brandon: 2-2; Lethbridge: 0-2.
Referees — Nolan Powell, Corey Koop.
Linesmen — Josh Blondeau, Nick Grenier.
Attendance — 2,670 in Brandon.