Nguyen hat trick paces Wheaties to win

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This article was published 12/03/2025 (190 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Marcus Nguyen posted a hat trick as the Brandon Wheat Kings picked a great time to finally beat the Saskatoon Blades at Westoba Place, earning a 5-2 victory in Western Hockey League action on Wednesday evening.

Brandon (34-22-4-3) received its goals from Luke Shipley and Caleb Hadland with Zach Olsen, Tanner Scott replying for Saskatoon (34-22-3-4) in front of a crowd of 2,930.

The win vaulted Brandon into the East Division lead and second place in the Eastern Conference, with both teams at 75 points. The Blades fell to fifth.

The seventh-place Prince Albert Raiders (34-22-5-1) are one point back in the race for the East Division crown, and were in action against the Lethbridge Hurricanes at VisitLethbridge.com Arena in a game that ended well after deadline.

“It’s massive,” Nguyen said of the win. “Obviously we struggled on the Alberta trip. Those were good teams on that trip and we knew that it was going to be hard. Coming home and sleeping in our own bed, Saskatoon was ahead of us and now we’re tied. It’s massive, and we’ve still got another game against them.”

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray agreed it was a big victory.

“It’s so tight that any time you win and one of your rivals you’re battling with ends up losing, that’s huge,” Murray said. “We tied these guys in the standings (Wednesday) and have five games left. It’s going to be a tight one right to the end.”

The first good scoring chance came four minutes in when Saskatoon’s Cooper Williams fed David Lewandoski on a partial two-on-one and Brandon goalie Carson Bjarnason came across with his pad for the save.

Hayden Harsanyi hit the goal post off a Brandon turnover three minutes later, and Frantisek Dej was denied on a breakaway as the Blades took an 8-3 edge in shots.

After all the action in their end, the Wheat Kings had to consider themselves fortunate when they struck first 10:36 into the opening frame.

Off a zone entry, the puck was dropped back to Shipley, who fired a shot through traffic — including a screen by Dominik Petr — and past Saskatoon goalie Ethan McCallum, a Brandonite making his fourth appearance of the season against his hometown club.

“We gave up too much in the house,” Murray said. “I think we had nine shots from the house, home plate we call it, and Barney made some big saves. It wasn’t the best of first periods.”

Nguyen made it 2-0 for Brandon 4:05 into the second period when he got the puck high in the zone, skated into the middle along the blue-line and fired a shot through a maze of bodies that eluded McCallum.

The overage forward from Calgary added a second goal three minutes later on the power play. He camped out at a bad angle near the net and ended up with the puck on his stick after a crafty, against-the-grain feed by Roger McQueen that left McCallum with no chance.

McQueen narrowly missed getting a goal of his own on another power play a minute later, but fired it wide.

The Blades showed signs of life when Olsen jumped on a loose puck in front of the net and scored during a scrambled shift in the Brandon zone, but just 45 seconds later, Nguyen got his hat trick goal with another shot from high in the slot as Nolan Flamand fought for position in front of the net.

“I’ve had probably had upwards of 20 two-goal games and this is my first regular season hat trick of my career,” said Nguyen, who had one in the playoffs last spring against the Prince George Cougars while skating on a line with former Wheat Kings captain Nate Danielson.

“That one felt good. The first goal I used the D-man, the second one Roger put that on a platter for me and the third one took a lucky bounce.

“I thought our whole line was working (Wednesday).”

The Wheat Kings handed the Blades back-to-back power plays late in the period and the second cost them when a pass to Rowan Calvert missed him at the side of the net but bounced out backdoor to Scott for a tap-on to make it 4-2.

Incredibly, the teams combined to post six goals on just 32 shots, with none of them what would be considered terrible goals.

“We scored some timely goals in the second to pull away a little bit and had a pretty solid third where we had a lot of zone time and some good chances and put a lot of pressure on them,” Murray said.

In the third period, Brandon took the edge in shots for the first time 15 minutes in as they enjoyed more time and gave up less defensively.

The Blades pulled McCallum with two minutes remaining and Hadland put the game away with a wrister from the blue-line after a Blade stumbled with the puck in the Brandon zone and Jordan Gavin made an unselfish pass to his linemate.

Both Bjarnason and McCallum made 28 saves.

Brandon went 1-for-2 on the power play, with Saskatoon scoring once in three chances.

The game was a good illustration of exactly how Murray wants his team to play, crowding the net front and throwing pucks in that direction.

“I sound like a broken record,” Murray said. “That’s where a guy like (Nick) Johnson makes his hay. We did pass up shots. We had a couple of two-on-ones where we tried to overpass it instead of shoot it. I would like to see guys have a little bit more of a shot-first mentality, but as the game wore on we made some plays, and that was a huge win for us.”

ICINGS: The game started at 6 o’clock instead of 7 due to the NHL legends game taking place after it finished … Brandon skated without injured F Easton Odut, F Jaxon Jacobson, F Ben Binder Nord and D Merrek Arpin, plus D Adam Belusko, who remains in Slovakia dealing with an academic requirement … Colten Worthington of Brandon has been back in the Blades lineup since March 1 after missing a month … Saskatoon rookie defenceman Isaac Poll was accidentally high sticked and cut by a Brandon stick on a follow-through of a pass and had to be attended to on the Blades bench. There was no call on the play … Nolan Flamand led the Wheat Kings with six shots on net … Nguyen scored on all three of his shots on net … The game took two hours, 24 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 39-26 … The Wheat Kings have a home-and-home series against the Moose Jaw Warriors on the weekend, with Friday’s game starting at Westoba Place at 7 p.m., and Saturday’s game at the Moose Jaw Events Centre beginning at 8 p.m. (CDT).

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