Brandon shows up late in loss

The struggling Brandon Wheat Kings dropped their fifth game in a row on Sunday but finally showed signs of life as they fell 6-3 to the Saskatoon Blades in Western Hockey League action at Assiniboine Credit Union Place.

Saskatoon (4-2-0-0) received two goals each from former Wheat King Dominik Petr and Hunter Laing and singles from Jordan Martin and David Lewandowski, with Luke Mistelbacher, Chase Surkan and Jaxon Jacobson replying for Brandon (0-4-1-0) in front of a crowd of 2,044.

“It was pretty special,” Petr said in front of a large group of his Brandon friends after the game.

“As you can see my billets are here and my girlfriend so it was special. It’s always nice to come home.”

Petr, who also had two assists and was named first star, was dealt to the Blades on draft day for the pick later used on young goalie Joffrey Chan.

It took the Blades just 15 seconds to create their first glorious opportunity, with Petr nearly sending a rebound past Brandon goalie Jayden Kraus.

That proved to be a preview of coming attractions.

For the fifth time in five games this season, the opponent scored first when Petr created a turnover on the forecheck and got the puck out to Martin, who fired it in at 11 minutes 12 seconds.

“We need to start with a goal,” Mistelbacher said. “We can’t be trailing all year and chasing the game. If we start better, we’ll have some success.”

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said it’s a symptom of what’s been going wrong for his club this season.

“It’s frustrating for sure because they’re all avoidable,” Murray said. “The first one tonight we go back to a puck slow and they turn it over and it’s in the back of our net. We don’t need guys to carry the team, I always say we don’t need guys to be 10 out of 10, if everybody’s eight out of 10, we’re pretty darn good. When it rains, it pours.”

Four minutes later, Petr came in on a breakaway, fought off the check of Gio Pantelas and tucked the puck over the shoulder of Kraus, and before the period ended, Laing scored off the rush.

The hosts were outshot 18-10 in the opening 20 minutes, and Brandon’s stretch without a goal hit 107 minutes 35 seconds dating back to the second period of their overtime loss to the Prince Albert Raiders. To compound the bad news, their opponents had 11 goals in that time.

The Blades extended the lead 4:16 into the middle frame when Lewandowski forced a turnover and got the puck over to Laing, who beat Kraus on the resulting breakaway. Brandon did have one glorious chance during a scramble but Blades forward Cohen Lodge knocked the puck out of the air as it headed into the net to save a goal.

Midway through the third period, Petr scored his second of the game on his team’s first power play on a great cross-zone pass by Brayden Klimpke.

With seven minutes left, trailing 5-0 and being badly outshot, Brandon might have mailed in the rest of the game earlier in the season. On Sunday, they finally got mad.

First, the Wheat Kings broke the goose egg with 6:03 left when Carter Klippenstein made a slick pass to Mistelbacher, who ripped a shot past Evan Gardner to end the stretch without a goal at 151 minutes 32 seconds.

“It felt good, it’s been a couple of games,” Mistelbacher said. “We were shut out last night and shut out until then tonight. I think we needed that and after that we scored two more, had a couple of fights. We ended well, we just started horribly.”

The Blades promptly restored the five-goal lead on a two-man breakaway on the power play when Lewandoski scored to finish with a five-point game, and the fireworks soon followed. Brandon defenceman Max Lavoie and captain Caleb Hadland both dropped the mitts and earned decisive victories, and the Wheat Kings then added a pair of late power-play goals, with Surkan on a two-man advantage and Jacobson with 13.3 seconds left.

The game ended with two seconds left after Brandon defenceman Nigel Boehm fought Saskatoon forward Zach Olsen. “Obviously the frustration boiled over,” Murray said. “There were a couple of hits there that probably stemmed from it and that started those altercations. The emotion was good to see. The guys stepped up a little bit and we got a couple of goals, even though they were late and kind of meaningless. Hopefully that can help us here moving forward.”

Mistelbacher added the late push displays the true identity of he and his teammates that they haven’t done a good job of showing on the ice through five losses.

“It says a lot about our team,” Mistelbacher said. “We’re relentless and we care about each other and we’re fighting for each other. It was good to see.”

Kraus made 35 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Gardner stopping 23 shots for the Blades. Brandon went 2-for-3 on the power play, with Saskatoon scoring on both of their chances.

Saskatoon head coach Dan DaSilva was understandably pleased with his team’s effort.

“I liked our game,” DaSilva said. “I thought we were as connected as we’ve been all year. Just the way our forwards were working for our D and our D were getting it up to our forwards and getting into the offensive zone and getting to work. All five guys were involved in the offence so we had lots of good things, played fast, played hard, blocked some shots, had tight defence that led to some offensive opportunities.

“It was a good 60 minutes for us outside of the last five minutes, but it is what it is with a three-on-five and some penalty kills.

“All in all it was a good effort by our group.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured D Merrek Arpin, suspended D Grayson Burzynski (second game of two-game suspension) plus healthy scratches F Gunnar Gleasman, F Ryan Boyce, D Adam Hlinsky … Mistelbacher led the Wheat Kings with six shots on net … The game took two hours, 18 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Saskatoon won 29-23 … Next week, Brandon hosts the Vancouver Giants on Friday at 7 o’clock and the Swift Current Broncos on Sunday at 4 p.m.

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