Ruzicka, Wheat Kings beat Pats 4-1

Rookie defenceman Cameron Allard had a goal and an assist as the Brandon Wheat Kings rebounded from a subpar outing on Tuesday with a 4-1 victory over the Regina Pats in Western Hockey League action at Assiniboine Credit Union Place on Friday.

Brandon (35-23-1-0) received its goals from Cameron Allard, Jordan Gavin, Jimmy Egan and Luke Mistelbacher, with Ruslan Karimov replying for Regina (22-28-6-1) in front of a crowd of 3,098.

Brandon fell 4-2 to the Prince George Cougars on Tuesday but have won seven of their last eight outings.

“It was huge,” Allard said of the rebound from the loss. “Prince George didn’t go how we wanted, but we regrouped. It’s a 68-game season and there are a lot of games to play and I think did that well and played a good one tonight.”

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said his team rose to the challenge.

“I thought it was a back-and-forth game for the most part,” Murray said. “We get the first one, and then I thought the power-play goal was a big one for us to get to go up 2-0. Then they got one and got some life, and we got a bounce on the third goal, but it was nice to strike back as soon as they got their first one.”

The first great chance of the first period came on a Brandon power play after Wheat Kings forward Jaxon Jacobson ran into linesman Logan Young. The puck went up the ice in the other direction, but Brandon goalie Filip Ruzicka denied Pats forward Caden Brown on the shorthanded breakaway.

Regina looked like it may have taken the lead 16:17 into the first period when the Russian Karimov knocked in a rebound, but it was quickly waved off by the referee and didn’t go to a video review because the Russian forward beat the puck into the crease.

With just 42.0 seconds left in the opening frame, Allard’s shot from the point through traffic found its way past Regina goalie Taylor Tabashniuk to put the hosts up 1-0.

“The puck came out front from Gav,” Allard said. “I picked it up, came off my side, tried to get around that first defender toward the net, and it found its way into the back of the net.”

The visitors had a pair of power plays in the first half of the middle frame, but the best chance again went the other direction as Gavin went in all alone just after the second one ended, but Tabashniuk outwaited him on the deke and made a pad save.

When Brandon went to their second power play late in the period, Tabashniuk robbed Gavin again on a backdoor one-timer.

Brandon doubled the lead 1:48 into the third period when Surkan set up Gavin with a cross-crease pass, and he had nothing but net to finally beat Tabashniuk.

Karimov got Regina on the board 11:31 into the final frame off a faceoff when the puck bounced over to him and he beat Ruzicka with a low shot.

But just 78 seconds later, Egan sent a pass into the crease from the corner that hit the skate of Regina defenceman Matt Paranych and bounced into the net to restore the two-goal lead.

The Wheat Kings put the game away with 3:01 left when Prabh Bhathal set up Mistelbacher with a pretty pass down low for the overage sniper’s 38th goal of the season.

The game ended on an exciting note for fans after the final whistle when Ruzicka got out of the referee’s grasp and fought Tabashniuk in the neutral zone as a melee developed at the end boards behind the Brandon net.

“We got pretty fired up on the bench,” Allard said. “It’s fun. I hope he doesn’t do that again, but it was fun.”

On the bench, Murray and assistant coaches Del Pedrick and Mark Derlago were all yelling at the big goalie to stop, for some very practical reasons, with his partner Jayden Kraus out of the lineup.

“They’re kids, but it was the worst possible timing,” Murray said. “We have another guy injured. I’m not sure if it’s going to be a suspension if they’ll call the (Daniil) Skvortsov situation a fight. If it is, that will be the second fight and result in a suspension. We may be looking for two goalies by Wednesday.”

Ruzicka made 35 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Tabashniuk stopping 31 shots for the Pats.

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

Regina head coach Brad Herauf said his team played well but just couldn’t find the back of the net enough.

“I thought it was a real tight-checking game,” Herauf said. “There were not a lot of mistakes out there so there weren’t a lot of scoring chances. I didn’t think we did a really good job of getting to the net or they did a really good job of boxing them out.

“I thought had some scoring chances we just didn’t finish on and we had some opportunities around the net and the pucks were bouncing over our sticks. It was some bad puck luck for us.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured G Jayden Kraus, F Joby Baumuller, F Caleb Hadland, F Carter Klippenstein, F Easton Odut, D Merrek Arpin and D Dylan Ronald, who tweaked his upper-body injury on Thursday at practice … Wheat Kings defenceman Max Lavoie threw one of the bigger hits of the season when he caught Pats forward Cohen Klassen with his head down coming through the neutral zone with the puck … Nick Johnson rang a post with 6:18 left with a wicked shot that would have put Brandon up 4-1 … Mistelbacher led the Wheat Kings with six shots on net … The game took two hours, 25 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon dominated 42-28 … Brandon returns to action on Wednesday when the Medicine Hat Tigers visit. Then they have a weekend home-and-home series with the Broncos, with Friday’s game in Swift Current and Saturday’s in Brandon.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com