Late goal in second period sinks Wheaties

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This article was published 23/02/2025 (208 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Grayson Burzynski scored his second goal with 0.7 seconds remaining in the second period as the Swift Current Broncos earned a 4-2 victory over the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings in Western Hockey League action at InnovationPlex on Saturday.

Brandon (30-18-4-3) received its goals from Nick Johnson and Caleb Hadland, with Clarke Caswell and Carlin Dezainde adding singles for Swift Current (29-24-1-1) in front of a crowd of 2,263.

While his club lost its second game in a row — they fell 5-0 to the Calgary Hitmen on Friday at home — they were 8-0-1-1 in the 10 games before that and Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said his club has gutted it out.

“We didn’t generate a ton in the first two periods but maybe towards the end of the second and then the third was really positive. We played most of the night with nine forwards and five D, and you can’t question the guys’ will. It’s been seven games in 11 days. This has been the grind of the season, there’s no question about it.

“Overall, I can leave the rink happier tonight than I did last night.”

Brandon, which remained without defenceman Luke Shipley (upper body, day to day) and Merrek Arpin (upper body, week to week) and forwards Roger McQueen (upper body, day to day) and Jaxon Jacobson (lower body, day to day) and forward Easton Odut (upper body, indefinite).

They also sent young defenceman Cameron Allard back to his under-18 AAA team, the Estevan Bears as he nears the league limit for call-up games. That left them with five defencemen and 10 forwards, a number that was reduced after forward Carter Klippenstein left the game after the first period.

Murray said the initial diagnosis was positive, but Klippenstein’s immediate status is unknown.

The hosts opened the scoring nine minutes 48 seconds into the opening period when forward Luke Mistelbacher held onto the puck after being rubbed out along the boards at the blue-line by Brandon defenceman Nigel Boehm and put it into the middle, where it hit a couple of sticks and ended up on the tape of Burzynski, who sent it into the top of the net over Brandon goalie Ethan Eskit.

Brandon nearly tied it on the power play 3:31 into the middle frame but Marcus Nguyen had his shot hit the post behind Swift Current goalie Joey Rocha and bounce back out underneath his pad. Johnson tied the game 8:46 into the second period when Nolan Flamand fed him the puck in the slot, and the big forward went to his backhand and tucked the puck between Rocha and the post.

The Broncos restored the lead six minutes later. Caswell set up Trae Wilke and he went in all alone, forcing Eskit to make a terrific save. But before the goaltender could reset, Caswell whirled and fired a shot under the goalie for the 20th goal and 70th point of the Brandonite’s season.

The Broncos nearly extended the lead a couple minutes later when the high-scoring overage forward Dezainde was sent in all alone but Eskit denied him with his blocker.

While Brandon had managed just 12 shots through 40 minutes, they were very much in the game when they gave up a heartbreaker late in the middle frame.

Swift Current forward Brady Birnie fed the 18-year-old Winnipegger Burzynski in the slot and he one-timed a shot into the net. The play went to a video review but was quickly judged to be a goal because 0.7 seconds was still left on the clock.

“It turned out to be the game winner,” Murray said. “We had a couple of breakdowns in the first and second when they made it 3-1. If we can just eat the puck and protect the house, there was kind of a magnitude of things that went on there. We maybe thought the period was going to end but those are the ones you eat it in the corner.”

Brandon had its best sustained pressure of the game 13 minutes into the final frame and manufactured a number of chances, but couldn’t beat Rocha.

The Wheat Kings had a scary moment with 6:11 remaining when Flamand crashed heavily into the end boards when he got tied up with Burzynski. He remained down, but after he was attended to by athletic therapist Zach Hartwick, the Brandon overage forward was eventually able to gingerly make his back to the bench and later returned to the game.

Brandon pulled back within a goal two minutes later when Hadland scored off a stout forecheck by Dominik Petr after the puck came to him and he fired a shot past Rocha for his 19th goal of the season.

The Wheat Kings pulled Eskit for the extra attacker with 1:42 left and Rocha made a terrific glove save on Matteo Michels 10 seconds later on a shot from the slot. The hosts put the game away with 38.7 seconds when Brady Birnie beat out an icing call and fed Dezainde in front for the overage forward’s 30th goal of the season.

“What I said to them after the game was that they can’t leave the rink being disappointed with our effort and not leaving it all out there,” Murray said. “It would have been pretty easy to pack it in after it got to 3-1 but we hung right in there and made it a one-goal game and had quite a few looks in the third period. We just couldn’t buy one. I thought in the third period we showed a lot of character and perseverance.”

Eskit made 29 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Rocha stopping 23 shots for the Broncos. Brandon went 0-for-2 on the power play, with Swift Current not receiving any chances.

ICINGS: The game didn’t start until 7:20 — it was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. — as officials and game staff dealt with the residue left by the carpet laid down for the pre-game ceremony. They actually had to get the Zamboni out again to flood the affected area again … Johnson and Adam Belusko led the Wheat Kings with four shots each on net … The game took two hours, 23 minutes to play after it finally got started … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 35-26 … Coming up, Brandon hosts three Alberta opponents at Westoba Place, including the Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday, the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday and the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson