Wheat Kings shut down Hurricanes again

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This article was published 09/02/2024 (587 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rylen Roersma scored twice and Brett Hyland had three assists as the Brandon Wheat Kings earned two big points with a 4-1 victory over the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes in Western Hockey League action at Westoba Place on Friday.

Brandon (26-19-5-1) received its other goals from Roger McQueen and Jayden Wiens, with Miguel Marques, replying for Lethbridge (24-23-3-0) in front of a crowd of 2,917. The win put the Wheat Kings eight points up on the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

“This time of year, it kind of feels like we’re already in playoff mode,” Roersma said. “Obviously, every point matters, whether it’s an overtime loss or an overtime win, so it’s really crucial that we keep going.”

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said other than a couple of miscues, his team played a clean game for their third strong outing this season against Lethbridge.

“Their top six is real strong,” Murray said. “I don’t know what it is, we’ve been able to keep them in check in our three games. The guys battled hard. They play a hard-nosed, straight-line game and we’ve come to play against them and it’s been nice to see.”

Brandon dominated the opening few minutes but failed to beat Lethbridge goalie Harrison Meneghin, partly due to Hurricanes captain Joe Arnstsen, who broke up a backdoor play to Wiens for a tap-in goal.

The best early chance, however, came on an ill-advised Brandon pass up the middle that was intercepted at the blue-line by Lethbridge forward Kooper Gizowski. He went in all alone but was denied by the blocker of Brandon goalie Carson Bjarnason.

After the Hurricanes finally gained the momentum for several minutes in the swift-skating game, the Wheat Kings rebounded to take the lead 12:18 into the opening frame on a play built off the blazing speed of Matteo Michels.

The Texas forward took the puck wide, and after Meneghin made a sensational save on a one-timer, McQueen found the rebound for his 21st goal of the season.

The hosts made it a two-goal lead with 24.4 seconds remaining in the period. Hyland skated the puck over the blue-line, put on the brakes and found Roersma streaking down the wing. The 19-year-old Albertan had a clear path to the net and lifted the puck over a sprawling Meneghin.

“I jumped on the ice on a mismatched change,” Roersma said. “We had some line scrambles there in the last minute of the period so you kind of want to keep things simple. We made a good breakout and Brett got the puck and made a beautiful pass to me and I took it across the crease and had the wide-open net.”

After the fireworks early in the first period, it took the teams nearly six minutes in the middle frame to get a shot on net, but Brandon’s first was a doozie. Wiens went in all alone from centre ice and put the puck under Meneghin’s glove for his 16th goal of the season to give the hosts a 3-0 lead.

“I know Hads (Caleb Hadland) put it out into the neutral zone and he got hit and was a little bit hurt,” Wiens said. “Flam (Nolan Flamand) got it on the boards and made a great one-touch to me in the middle. I didn’t realize I was on a breakaway until I looked up so it worked out pretty good.”

The Hurricanes finally broke the goose egg 9:44 into the second period on a terrific stretch pass by Logan Wormald to Marques, who beat Bjarnason between the legs on the deke.

Entering the game, Brandon had blanked Lethbridge for the previous 149 minutes and 40 seconds dating back to last season — they shut them out twice this season already — a streak finally ended at 179 minutes, 24 seconds.

With 2:59 remaining and the puck in the Brandon zone after an icing, Lethbridge took a timeout and pulled Meneghin for the extra attacker. He was forced to return to the net after a faceoff in the neutral zone and left again with 98 seconds left.

The Wheat Kings added an empty netter with 2.2 seconds remaining after Hyland fed Roersma for a shot into the empty net.

With a 7-2 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday, Brandon is now riding a two-game winning streak, but they have to hop on the bus early to visit the Prince Albert Raiders this evening at 7 o’clock.

“They’re huge,” Wiens said. “They’re two teams who are trying to catch us and we won both. They were great games, and we’ll keep rolling (today).”

Bjarnason made 20 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Meneghin stopping 32 shots for the Hurricanes.

Both clubs went 0-for-1 on the power play.

Lethbridge assistant coach Matt Anholt said his club, which has lost three in a row and is missing Carter Dereniwsky, Dylan Sydor and Luke Cozens up front, simply wasn’t good enough.

“I think our overall lack of depth hurt us significantly,” Anholt said. “We’re missing some key guys up front and some guys are having to play a lot more than they’re used to. They weren’t able to beat their matchup across the ice. They have some good forwards over there and they showed it against our forwards tonight.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without Nick Johnson (upper body, week to week) and healthy scratch D Seth Tansem … Brandon came into the game a perfect 4-0-0-0 when leading 2-0 after 20 minutes … Six-foot-three Lethbridge forward Landen Ward is the brother of former Wheat Kings defenceman Mason Ward. He fought Brandon’s Matt Henry in the second period … On their first man advantage, the Hurricanes didn’t gain the Wheat Kings zone again after the initial faceoff … Charlie Elick led the Wheat Kings with five shots on net … The game took two hours, 15 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 28-26.

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