Wheat Kings pushed to the brink

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This article was published 01/04/2025 (441 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VIRDEN — Miguel Marques had a goal and two assists and Jackson Unger made 37 saves as the Lethbridge Hurricanes took a 3-0 stranglehold in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with the Brandon Wheat Kings on Tuesday, earning a 3-1 victory in Game 3 at Virden’s Tundra Oil and Gas Place.

“It was a hard-fought battle,” Marques said. “They were pushing to get a win in the series and obviously we wanted to go up 3-0 and get the chokehold. They played a better game and dominated us a little bit, and their goalie made some big saves but we weathered the storm and played pretty well.”

Lethbridge received its other goals from Carsen Adair and Leo Braillard, with Nolan Flamand replying for Brandon in front of a Western Hockey League crowd of 1,430.

Game 4 is at Tundra Oil & Gas Place tonight at 7 p.m.

“You can’t get too down on yourselves,” Flamand said. “Losing is not a good feeling, and especially down three now, it’s hard to look at all the positives, but we did a lot of great things and we’ve done a lot of great things through the series.

“Unfortunately the puck luck hasn’t been there. The thing about the playoffs is you have to bear down, and if we carry that on for the next four big games, that will be huge for us.”

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray agreed.

“I’m happy with the effort tonight,” Murray said. “The kids played hard and unfortunately we got down 2-0 there but I thought we fought really hard and got better as the game wore on.”

“We really pushed hard,” he added. “The kids left it all out on the ice. We had so many chances but we just couldn’t bury it. It was frustrating.”

The Wheat Kings were without all-star defenceman Luke Shipley and the Hurricanes were missing overage forward Jordan Gustafson after the pair were suspended for one game following an altercation at the end of Game 2 in Lethbridge.

That meant callup Cam Allard made his WHL playoff debut for Brandon.

The game couldn’t have started much worse for Brandon, with Adair cashing in one minute 56 seconds into the game with a shot from the top of the circle that cleanly beat Brandon starting goalie Carson Bjarnason.

The Hurricanes made it 2-0 six minutes later when the Swiss sniper Braillard raced between captain Quinn Mantei and the youngster Allard and beat Bjarnason between the legs on the deke.

Brandon drew back within a goal 6:35 into the second period on their first power play. It took them a while to get possession established, but when they did, they moved the puck around and Mantei fed Flamand for a shot from the slot past Lethbridge goalie Jackson Unger.

“It was pretty electric,” Flamand said. “It’s one I’m going to remember for the rest of my career. I’ve only had two playoff goals in my career and that’s the second, and to start out the 2025 playoffs at home was pretty special for me. It was a perfect screen by Roger (McQueen) there that gave me the time to put it by Unger’s ears.

“To hear it hit the back post in the net was pretty special and to hear the crowd road as well made me feel pretty good. I’ll definitely carry it into tomorrow.”

The Wheat Kings played one of their better defensive periods of the series, outshooting the visitors 10-6. That came despite losing forward McQueen for the rest of the game.

Brandon had a series of near-misses in the third period, with bounces not going their way, last-second defensive plays by Lethbridge and errant shots narrowly going wide. In one instance, a Mantei shot bounced off the back glass and nearly went in off Unger’s skate.

The Wheat Kings received a glorious opportunity when Hurricanes forward Shane Smith upended Marcus Nguyen, sending Brandon to its third power play with 6:11 remaining. Caleb Hadland was sent in all alone on a stretch pass but Unger made the save, and Flamand hit a post behind the goalie.

The league’s best penalty kill in the regular season didn’t break, however, leaving the Wheat Kings with just over four minutes to find the equalizer.

Brandon, which had an 18-6 edge in shots in the third period, pulled Bjarnason with 1:45 remaining for the extra attacker and it took seconds for Marques to find the empty net from the neutral zone for the insurance goal.

Bjarnason made 21 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Unger stopping 37 shots for the Hurricanes.

Brandon went 1-for-3 on the power play, with Lethbridge unsuccessful in three chances.

Lethbridge head coach Bill Peters said his team did what it needed to for the win.

“I thought we were resilient,” Peters said. “We got off to a good start and then got on our heels a little bit, but credit to them, they pushed hard and they were desperate.”

The rink proved to be a hit with the Hurricanes too, who weren’t sure what lay ahead for Games 3 and 4.

Marques, a product of Prince George, B.C., who just turned 19, was impressed by the atmosphere.

“It’s awesome,” Marques said. “We got in last night and came into the rink and hung up our gear and checked it out. It’s better than we thought actually, it’s not so bad after all. It was electric, sold-out with standing room only, so it’s pretty sweet.”

ICINGS: Brandon also skated without injured F Easton Odut, D Merrek Arpin and F Joby Baumuller (illness), plus healthy scratches F Isaac Davies … Lethbridge continues to play without injured D Kale Tipler … Quinn Mantei led the Wheat Kings with five shots on net, while Caden Price led the Hurricanes with four … The game took two hours, 17 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Lethbridge won 30-23 … If needed, Game 5 is back in Alberta on Friday at 8 p.m., Game 6 would be in Virden on Sunday at 4 p.m. and a deciding Game 7 is set for Lethbridge on Tuesday at 8 o’clock.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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