Wheat Kings rally to beat Giants 4-3

The Brandon Wheat Kings finally earned their first victory of the season on Friday, overcoming an early 2-0 deficit to beat the visiting Vancouver Giants 4-3 in Western Hockey League action at Assiniboine Credit Union Place.

Brandon (1-4-1-0) received its goals from Luke Mistelbacher, Nick Johnson, Chase Surkan and Brady Turko, with Aaron Obobaifo, Jakob Oreskovic and Ryan Lin replying for Vancouver (2-6-0-0) in front of a crowd of 2,301.

“I think we’ve had a lot of ups and downs at the start of the season so far, and to see us come out like this just shows we can be a contender in the league,” Turko said. “That’s something we’re going to push towards moving forward. I really like how we played. I thought we were flying in the O-zone and being good defensively. We played an all-around great game.”

While they didn’t make it easy for him at the end, Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray looked relieved his club finally earned two points.

“Oh man, I’ve been around the game for a long time, and this was a stressful couple of weeks, no doubt about it,” Murray said. “Just to get that first one, guys will have some confidence, and winning the way we did, keeping them to 21 shots, and after giving up the first two goals, I thought we had a pretty tidy game after that.”

After the Wheat Kings mounted some pressure early, the game began to tilt towards Brandon’s end, and it cost them.

The Giants opened the scoring seven minutes and 52 seconds into the contest after Obobaifo stripped the puck in the neutral zone, skated into the Wheat Kings zone, saw big Brandon goalie Filip Ruzicka waiting for him and sped around the net and scored on a wrap-around.

It was the sixth time in six games this season that Brandon’s opponent scored first.

To make matters worse, just two minutes later, Oreskovic tipped a shot by Ryan Lin past Ruzicka, and it was 2-0. The two-goal deficit seemed to spark the Wheat Kings, who regained their early jump.

Rookie defenceman Cameron Allard made a great play in the neutral zone to corral the puck and sent a quick pass to Jaxon Jacobson at the blue-line. He skated in and backhanded a saucer pass to Mistelbacher, who ripped a shot just inside the far post past Vancouver goalie Burke Hood, a Brandonite playing his first WHL game in his hometown.

Two minutes later, Hood made a miraculous save with his elbow on the game’s first power play to maintain the Vancouver lead, but it was 2-2 before the period ended.

Johnson carried the puck in on a partial breakaway and shovelled it across to Hadland as defenders converged on him. Hadland got a shot on net, and with Hood down, Johnson was able to tie the game by shovelling the rebound over the 18-year-old netminder with 52.7 seconds left in the opening frame.

The game turned 12:07 into the middle frame when Obobaifo was assessed a double minor for slew footing.

The Wheat Kings moved the puck around on the power play, and 89 seconds later, Jacobson found Surkan all alone, and the rookie fired it home as Hood dove across the net in vain.

Just 65 seconds later, Caleb Hadland spotted Turko at the hash marks, and the Anaheim Ducks prospect fired home his first goal of the season to make it 4-2.

“It was kind of a bobbled puck on my end and I chipped it down to Hads and luckily he found me in the slot,” Turko said. “To see that one go in was for sure a sigh of relief. To get the monkey off your back was pretty good.”

In a comedy of errors, the Wheat Kings let the Giants back into the game shorthanded with seven minutes remaining in regulation when they failed to make a defensive play after a neutral zone turnover, and after a breakaway went awry, Lin fired it in from the slot to make it 4-3.

Brandon had been largely controlling play until that point, and with its ability to let teams back into games this season, it was white-knuckle time for the hosts.

Hood left the net for the extra attacker with 1:17 remaining, and while Brandon had a couple of chances at the open net that missed, Vancouver never seriously threatened.

Murray liked his club’s defensive effort.

“We had to have a layer there, and I thought that was easily the best game our D played as a group,” Murray said. “I didn’t think we gave them a ton. They killed plays and moved pucks, and if there was a breakdown, we had another layer behind it, which you need.”

Ruzicka made 18 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Hood stopping 31 shots for the Giants.

“I thought he made some big saves,” Murray said of the six-foot-seven Ruzicka. “I’m sure it’s going to take a little time to adjust and we have to remember he’s 17 years old. He’s just a young kid.

“Maybe he didn’t realize with the translation what he was stepping into and the desperation that we needed a win, but hats off to him. He made some big saves at big times.”

Brandon went 2-for-6 on the power play, with Vancouver unsuccessful in one chance.

Vancouver assistant coach Wacey Rabbit, whose team finishes its six-game road trip tonight against the Regina Pats, said the penalties really hurt.

“I think we were good in the first period,” the former Saskatoon Blades star said. “Both teams are trying to find their legs early in the season, and for us, it’s been a lot about discipline. You could see in the second period we were going well and then take a couple of penalties, and that disrupts the momentum of our game. We want to play five-on-five — we think we’re a great five-on-five team — and a couple of shorthanded goals in and now we’re chasing.

“I thought we were good in the third period, we just ran out of time, but give credit to Brandon, they played hard.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured D Merrek Arpin and D Adam Hlinsky, plus healthy scratches F Gunnar Gleasman, F Ryan Boyce, and G Hudson Perry … Nick Johnson led the Wheat Kings with six shots on net … The game took two hours, 20 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Vancouver won 32-25 … The Wheat Kings meet the Swift Current Broncos on Sunday at 4 p.m.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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