Bhathal nets winner for Wheat Kings

Filip Ruzicka made 35 saves and Prabh Bhathal’s first goal of the season stood as the winner as the Brandon Wheat Kings snapped a five-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the Saskatoon Blades in Western Hockey League action at SaskTel Centre on Wednesday.

Brandon (23-17-1-0) received its other goals from Grayson Burzynski and Joby Baumuller, with Zach Olsen replying for Saskatoon (21-16-2-1) in front of a crowd of 2,802.

With the victory, Brandon took over fifth spot in the Eastern Conference, two points up on Saskatoon.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said it didn’t go unnoticed that two of his team’s youngest players led the charge.
“They were big contributors in the game,” Murray said. “Prabh is a guy we’ve talked about for a little bit. He seems like he was on the cusp of breaking through and I thought he had a real strong effort and a big goal for us. He was around the net and could have had a couple more.
“Filip, it was a good bounce-back game for him (from getting pulled in a 6-3 loss to Regina on Saturday). He was outstanding from start to finish as well.”

After killing an early penalty to Burzynski, Blades defenceman Jack Kachkowski cut Wheat Kings forward Jaxon Jacobson with a high stick and received a double minor. Burzynski got his revenge when he fired a shot over the glove of Blades rookie netminder Ryley Budd to give his team the lead 10 minutes 12 seconds into the game.

Brandon was fortunate to stay in the lead when goalie Filip Ruzicka came across the net with a pad to deny Dustin Willhöft on a late power play, taking away what looked to be a sure goal into an empty net.

Second periods have not been a strength for Brandon recently, with just one goal in their previous five games. In their last three games, they were outshot 38-12 in the middle frame.

The Blades nearly tied the game 15 minutes into the period on a hard shot through traffic but the puck hit the crossbar and stayed out.

Brandon widened the lead 17:27 into the middle frame.

The rookie Bhathal, who has consistently been one of his team’s most effective forwards recently, was found near the net with a crafty, deceptive pass by Jimmy Egan and finally scored his first goal of the season as Budd lunged for the puck. It was Bhathal’s second career goal after he sniped as a 15-year-old callup last season.

As it turned out, the Wheat Kings outscored the Blades and outshot them 11-7, the first time they’ve done both in any period in 2026.

“I just thought we were resilient,” Murray said. “We bent a little but we didn’t break. When they pushed, we pushed back a little bit. We talk a lot about momentum with our group and when they had a couple of shifts, we were able to push back and that was the difference of hanging in there and ultimately winning a period of hockey. We had that pushback that we’re talked about having on a more consistent basis.”

Brandon entered the game with a 17-1-1-0 record when leading after two periods, but Saskatoon pressed early, piling up four shots in the first two minutes of the final frame.

After both teams went down a defenceman to majors and game misconducts due to a staged scrap — Brandon’s Nigel Boehm and Saskatoon’s Jordan Martin — the Blades also lost defenceman Isaac Poll a couple of minutes later when he blocked a heavy shot by Caleb Hadland with the inside of his leg.

After managing to fend off the Wheat Kings’ massive pressure during a power play, the hosts pushed back.

The Blades finally broke through with 8:44 left when the Wheat Kings couldn’t clear the zone after a draw and David Lewandowski found Olsen for a one-timer from the slot.

Saskatoon pulled Budd for an extra attacker with 94 seconds remaining and a faceoff in the Brandon end. The visitors put the game away when Jordan Gavin gained possession of the puck near the blue-line and spotted Baumuller streaking up the ice. Brandon’s leading goal scorer sent a hard shot into the net with five seconds left to salt the game away.

Budd stopped 29 shots for the Blades.

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

I think it was a pretty gritty effort,” Murray said. “Obviously we had a letdown last night (in a 5-2 loss to the Prince Albert Raiders) and a quick turnaround for us and they didn’t play. I thought it was a pretty high character win and everybody contributed. It was a solid effort from start to finish.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured D Merrek Arpin, F Easton Odut, F Chase Surkan and F Carter Klippenstein. The latter two were hurt on Tuesday … Luke Mistelbacher and Joby Baumuller led the Wheat Kings with seven shots each on net … The game took two hours, 23 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Saskatoon won 27-24 … Brandon hosts the Victoria Royals on Friday in their final home action in January.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com