Wheat Kings hang on to beat Raiders

It took six tries, but the Brandon Wheat Kings finally solved the Prince Albert Raiders on Friday, handing the visitors a 4-3 loss in Western Hockey League action at Assiniboine Credit Union Place.

Brandon (30-22-1-0) received its goals from Luke Mistelbacher, Nick Johnson, Gunnar Gleasman and Jaxon Jacobson, with Jonah Sivertson, Riley Boychuk and Linden Burrett replying for Prince Albert (40-8-5-0) in front of a crowd of 3,233.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said it was nice to finally earn two points against Prince Albert.

“I’ve actually liked our games in Brandon when we played them,” Murray said. “There’s another level we have to get to but it’s our last game, our sixth game of the year against these guys and I thought we deserved better in our home games.

“Hopefully this is a good confidence booster for our guys that we can beat anybody.”

Brandon opened the scoring exactly one minute into the game after they prevented Prince Albert from breaking out of their zone.

Jacobson gathered the puck in the corner and sent a pass to Mistelbacher in front. The overage forward had his initial shot stopped by Prince Albert goalie Steele Bass but knocked the rebound out of the air into the net for his 100th WHL goal.

The Raiders tied the game at the 6:30 mark when they broke in and Sivertson fired a shot from the slot up over the glove of Brandon goalie Jayden Kraus, who was facing this hometown club.

Murray said on Thursday the Wheat Kings would have to stay put of the penalty box because it has cost them in the past against the Raiders, and the words proved prophetic.

On the game’s first power play, the Raiders took the lead 13:40 into the period they moved the puck around in front, and Boychuk knocked in a second-chance rebound.

The play went to a video review but was judged to be a good goal because the puck had crossed the goal-line.

Just over a minute later, Brandon defenceman Cameron Allard put the puck into the Prince Albert net, but it came a moment too late.

The whistle had just blown with Brandon in control of the puck after a pair of Daxon Rudolph cross checks along the boards, which quickly erupted into a 10-player melee that didn’t include any actual fights. Even Kraus skated to centre ice, perhaps looking for Bass to join him.

That play also went to a review — the second in a minute for video goal judge Jeff Sawchuk — but the puck had clearly gone in way too late.

Brandon did go to its first power play, and the Raiders only maintained their lead when Raiders defenceman Bennett Kelly sprawled out to block a shot by Wheat Kings forward Joby Baumuller that was labelled for the empty net behind him.

Prince Albert’s inability to stay out of the box hurt them in the second period, as they gave the hosts four chances.

On their second power play early in the middle frame, Prabh Bhathal wired a shot off the crossbar, but seconds later, Johnson tied the game with a quick shot from the side of the net.

And then, just 39 seconds later, Gleasman fired in his fifth goal of the season on a terrific feed by newcomer Brett Wilson. A scary moment came at the 6:45 mark at the end of a fight between Baumuller and Raiders defenceman Matyas Man.

The WHL’s leading scorer was on the bottom as the two players fell at the end of the tilt, and while Man got up, Baumuller didn’t move. He lay motionless on the ice until he was removed from the ice on a stretcher and taken to hospital.

Man received a pair of extra minors and a game misconduct, which suggest the referees thought he threw Baumuller down.

“Joby is a big part of our hockey club obviously, but anybody who is suiting up for us, when you see a player in a position like that, it’s tough to watch,” Murray said. “There was some anger on the bench for sure and guys played with controlled emotion the rest of the night. I think it would have been easy to get off the rails and take some bad penalties but we didn’t.

“We talked about it after the second period and certainly after the game, that it was for Joby. Hopefully he’s going to be OK.”

The Wheat Kings failed to take advantage of the four-minute power play, coming closest when Brady Turko rang a shot off the post.

The Raiders continued to take penalties, however, and after a mostly uneventful power play late in the period, Jordan Gavin found Jacobson with a backdoor pass and Brandon went up 4-2.

Oddly, in their first game of the season between the clubs on Sept. 27, Prince Albert led 2-1 after 20 minutes and Brandon scored all three goals in the second period.

It didn’t take long in the third period for the Raiders to show they had similar intentions.

Just 2:05 in, Burrett tipped a pass by Sivertson and the visitors were back within a goal and pressing for more.

The Raiders intensified the push on their second power play after Kraus took a tripping penalty, but Brandon killed it with two big shot blocks by Gavin.

Brandon received another power play with 5:50 left on a hit from behind by Raiders captain Justice Christensen on Turko, and Jacobson narrowly missed the net on a backdoor opportunity.

The hosts had another opportunity just after the man advantage ended when Gavin was sent in on a breakaway but Bass made the save when he tried to go between his legs.

After it didn’t score, Brandon needed a shot block at the side of the net by defenceman Gio Pantelas to maintain the lead when he took away a sure goal with less than three minutes left.

The Raiders pulled Bass with 1:30 left in regulation, and took a timeout with one minute left and a faceoff in the Brandon end but never seriously threatened.

Kraus made 34 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Bass stopping 35 shots for the Raiders.

Brandon went 2-for-7 on the power play, with Prince Albert scoring once in two chances.

“I thought we were resilient,” Murray said. “We had a lot of adversity, going down in a weird first period … Our guys stuck with it. The theme of the night was controlled emotion and playing hard and not crossing that line and ending up in the penalty box.”

ICINGS: Brandon once again skated without injured D Merrek Arpin, D Dylan Ronald, F Easton Odut, F Carter Klippenstein, F Caleb Hadland and F Chase Surkan … Mistelbacher and Johnson led the Wheat Kings with six shots on net … The game took two hours, 32 minutes to play after starting at 7:09 p.m. … In the faceoff circle, Prince Albert won 28-20 … The Wheat Kings visit the Swift Current Broncos tonight at 7 p.m., and host the Saskatoon Blades on Monday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com