Everett extends success in Brandon

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This article was published 08/10/2024 (434 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Everett Silvertips continued their historic domination of the Brandon Wheat Kings at Westoba Place, earning their seventh victory in 10 outings with a 4-1 victory on Tuesday.

Everett (5-1-0-0) received two goals from young star Landon DuPont and singles from Beau Courtney and Jesse Heslop, with Ben Binder Nord replying for Brandon (4-2-0-1) in front of a crowd of 2,664.

The Wheat Kings are just 3-5-1-1 against the Silvertips at home since the American club joined the league in the 2003-04 season.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said his team simply wasn’t good enough.
“That’s what a hard-working competitive, buy-in team looks like, over on the other side,” Murray said. “I think it needs to be an eye opener for us. I think we think we’re working hard and competing but we got outworked and beat to pucks and out-willed.”

The visitors had the best chance early, with Caden Brown sprung free on a broken play two minutes 58 seconds into the game but Brandon starting goalie Carson Bjarnason played the deke perfectly and knocked the puck away with his glove.

Two minutes later, the big goaltender was called on to make two more saves in quick succession as some sloppy play by the hosts gave the visitors some excellent opportunities.

Brandon broke through at the 6:31 mark after a partial breakaway was stopped by Everett goalie Jesse Sanche. After the initial save, the puck went back out to the blue-line and Dylan Ronald’s shot hit Binder Nord in the slot and trickled into the net.

“It was kind of just there,” Binder Nord said. “I saw the high tip and Ronald noticed and hit me and it just worked out.
“I think it deflected skate-stick,” he added.

Either way, it was his first WHL goal, and one he’ll remember.

“It’s good,” Binder Nord said. “My game is mostly about points but when they’re there, it feels nice to help out the team. If I keep pushing, they’ll come. As long as I’m doing that, it feels good.”

The game slowed at times with repeated icings, but near the end of the period former Portland Winterhawks forward Marcus Nguyen’s hit on a Silvertip near the Everett bench injected some passion into both sides.

The visitors took over in the second period.

Eight minutes in, the Silvertips scored on their first power play after a turnover in the neutral zone when Brandon forward Dominik Petr made an ill-advised pass instead of icing the puck. Everett raced back up the ice and Dominik Rymon found the sensational 15-year-old defenceman DuPont in a seam for a quick one-timer that tied the game 1-1.

“I thought the first period was actually a real competitive period and we got up, which is good, and then we let that first one in and seemed to get deflated,” Murray said. “That’s when it turned for us.”

Everett took the game over for a couple of shifts at that point, peppering Bjarnason and hemming Brandon in.

The Silvertips took the lead for good eight minutes later on another unforced error. Rookie defenceman Giorgos Pantelas went for a hip check on Courtney near the boards but the 19-year-old forward danced around him, skated in a few steps and wired a shot over Bjarnason’s shoulder to put Everett up 2-1.

“We had a chance to get it down once on the power play 30 seconds in and we made a soft play, and a minute into the kill when we’re out on the ice that long, we make another soft play and it ends up in the back of the net,” Murray said of the first goal. “The second was under our guy’s stick in the neutral zone and they’re opportunistic and capitalize on those opportunities. The hard part for me is that we kind of did it to ourselves.”

The visitors added another off the rush moments after Brandon’s Matteo Michels fired a shot off the crossbar at the other end. Caden Brown got behind the Brandon defence but failed to get off a shot off. Unfortunately for the Wheat Kings, Bjarnason understandably reacted to the shot attempt and Heslop was there to tap the puck into the empty net.

It was the second time this season the Wheat Kings have allowed three goals in a period, with the common denominator being that they lost both games.

In the final frame, the teams traded penalties with just over three minutes remaining, and Brandon pulled Bjarnason for the extra attacker for a five-on-four power play.

Dupont scored his second of the game into the empty net from his own end with 59 seconds remaining to seal the game.

Bjarnason made 40 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Sanche stopping 30 shots for the Silvertips.

Brandon went 0-for-4 on the power play, with Everett scoring once in three chances. It’s the second game in a row the Wheat Kings have failed to score a goal with the man advantage after a five-game success streak to start the season.

“That was a good team,” Binder Nord said. “They competed hard. We just have to learn from that and learn from their game to play the full 60, be hard and win battles. We can get them for sure when we play our game but we always have to be doing it.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured F Nick Johnson (lower body, week to week) and healthy scratches D Nigel Boehm and D Adam Belusko … Everett F Nolan Chastko and D Kaeson Fisher were both in the starting lineup as they played their first WHL games in Brandon … Petr, Nguyen and Roger McQueen led the Wheat Kings with four shots each on net … The game took two hours, 24 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Everett dominated by a margin of 39-26 … Brandon heads out to Alberta to meet the Medicine Hat Tigers on Friday and the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Saturday … The Prince Albert Raiders acquired 19-year-old Czech defenceman Vojtech Vochvest from the Prince George Cougars on Monday for an eighth-round pick in 2027. In another deal on Tuesday, the Cougars sent overage forward Carlin Dezainde of Calgary and a ninth-round draft pick in 2025 to the Swift Current Broncos for 19-year-old forward Van Eger of Willow Bunch, Sask., a second-round pick in 2025, and a fourth-round pick in 2027. Prince George had to move an overager after the Los Angeles Kings returned forward Koehn Ziemmer on Monday … The Saskatoon Blades announced Tuesday they had signed 17-year-old German forward David Lewandowski. They grabbed him 120th overall in the most recent Canadian Hockey League import draft.

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