Baumuller leads Wheaties past Oil Kings

Joby Baumuller scored twice for the third game in a row as the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings beat the Edmonton Oil Kings 4-2 in Western Hockey League action at Rogers Place on Sunday.

Brandon (17-11-1-0) received its other goals from Carter Klippenstein and Max Lavoie as it won its season-high sixth game in a row, with Kanjyu Gojsic and Miroslav Holinka replying for Edmonton (21-7-2-1) in front of a crowd of 6,417.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said it was a nice win for his club, which is playing four games in six days in Alberta as they finish up the first half of the season before the Christmas break.

“It wasn’t our best effort,” Murray said. “Hockey is a funny game. There are probably some games — I’m not saying we should have lost tonight — but there were some games early in the year we probably should have won where we came up short and then you have a night like tonight where you get outshot pretty heavily and you find a way to get it done. It was a little bit of an ugly road game.”

He noted the team played Friday, travelled Saturday and didn’t have a pregame skate on Sunday.

“I think we were a little flat for sure in the first period,” Murray said. “Our best period was probably our third period. It wasn’t pretty but we found a way to get it done, which I’m proud of the guys for.”

On Brandon’s first power play midway through the opening frame, Baumuller hit a post but the Oil Kings blocked four shots and had the best chance when Holinka came in all alone on a long breakaway that was stopped by Wheat Kings goalie Filip Ruzicka. The Wheat Kings opened the scoring 16 minutes one second into the opening frame when Baumuller intercepted a pass by Edmonton defenceman Ryan Gower and went in on a short breakaway, waiting just long enough to beat Edmonton goalie Parker Snell between his pad and the post on his backhand.

Brandon put the first four shots on net in the game but by the end of the opening frame trailed 15-6 in that department.

The start of the second period couldn’t have been nuttier.

It took just 12 seconds for Brandon to extend the lead when Klippenstein found the rebound on a shot by Brady Turko. But just 17 seconds later, Gojsic jumped on a loose puck for the Oil Kings and the game was 2-1. Gojsic’s brother Hiroki scored for the Kelowna Rockets against the Wheat Kings on Friday in a 6-3 loss.

That was the last contribution by the 17-year forward from Langley, B.C., however, because Gojsic was tossed from the game 10:36 into the middle frame for an attempt-to-injure major involving Turko, which sent the Wheat Kings to the power play and left the Oil Kings with just 10 forwards.

Brandon’s power play didn’t respond. It took them 4:41 to get their one and only shot on net — and the best chances came from Edmonton’s three shorthanded breakaways, with Ruzicka making a terrific glove save on Lukas Sawchyn.

“It was just the way night went,” Murray said. “We didn’t get much done. It’s one thing to score some goals, but we probably got out-chanced, to be honest. That happens. Your power play can’t be rock stars every night. You would have liked to get one or two on the major but we didn’t and the penalty kill came up huge when we needed it.”

Brandon’s oddly toothless power play then failed to get a shot on another attempt to start the third period. When they went to their fourth power play minutes later, Caleb Hadland was flagged for a high sticking double minor, negating another opportunity.

With the teams playing four-on-four, Holinka beat Brandon’s Gio Pantelas against the boards, skated out and ripped a shot past Ruzicka to tie the game. The Oil Kings then went to a power play for two minutes 40 seconds, but the Wheat Kings capitalized instead when Baumuller and Carter Klippenstein came in together on a two-on-one and Baumuller elected to shoot, with Snell making the initial save but the puck bouncing over his shoulder and into the net.

It was Brandon’s second shorthanded goal of the season.

“He’s playing with a lot of confidence and he’s strong,” Murray said of Baumuller. “He’s a shooter and it’s real enjoyable to see him round out his game, killing penalties and playing important minutes at important times of the game. I think he’s evolving as a real, real good junior hockey player.”

The Wheat Kings added to the lead with 7:49 remaining when the defensive defenceman Lavoie snapped a low shot from the blue-line that found its way through traffic and between Snell’s legs, putting the visitors up 4-2.

Edmonton pulled the goalie with 2:40 remaining, and Jaxon Jacobson promptly hit the post with a shot from in front of his own net. Nick Johnson did find the empty net with 47.7 seconds remaining but since Hadland was lying in the Edmonton zone, it was offside and didn’t count.

Ruzicka later took a crack at the empty net later too, but the goalie didn’t get a good shot away and the puck stalled in the neutral zone. He made 32 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Snell stopping 15 shots for the Oil Kings.

Both teams went 0-for-4 on the power play.

The Wheat Kings travelled to Red Deer after the game for a matchup against Rebels on Tuesday, and they face the Medicine Hat Tigers on Wednesday and the Calgary Hitmen on Friday. “This trip is going to be a grind, especially because we’ve already played a lot of hockey coming in,” Murray said. “To get the first one is big. Hopefully we get back to a little normalcy (Monday) and have a good practice in Red Deer and then a pre-game skate (on Tuesday) and be ready to go. It’s always a tough environment in Red Deer.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured D Merrek Arpin and D Adam Hlinsky, plus healthy scratches F Gunnar Gleasman, F Ryan Boyce and D Nigel Boehm … Edmonton was playing without its four world junior players, Blake Fiddler (United States) Ethan McKenzie (Canada) and Max Curran and Adam Jecho (Czechia). They were also without their injured captain Gavin Hodnett of Winnipeg … Brandon is 12-1-1-0 when leading after 40 minutes … Turko led the Wheat Kings with four shots on net … The game took two hours, 23 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Edmonton won 28-26.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com