Baumuller hits 40 goals in Brandon victory

Dylan Ronald scored the winning goal midway through the third period after the Regina Pats rallied from a two-goal deficit to tie it up as the Brandon Wheat Kings earned a 6-3 victory in Western Hockey League action at Brandt Centre on Friday.

Brandon (39-26-2-0) received its other goals from Brett Wilson, Nigel Boehm and Prabh Bhathal, with Joby Baumuller adding a pair of late empty netters as the club snapped a three-game losing streak. At the other end, Maddox Schultz scored twice and Ephram McNutt also replied for Regina (25-33-7-2) in front of a crowd of 6,242.

The teams meet again tonight at Assiniboine Credit Union Place tonight at 6 p.m.

The Wheat Kings officially clinched fifth place in the Eastern Conference when the first-place Prince Albert Raiders beat the visiting Saskatoon Blades 4-0, a game that ended 10:33 p.m. (CDT), 11 minutes before the contest in Regina finished up.

The Pats, who are battling to protect seventh place, received some help when the Medicine Hat Tigers beat the Red Deer Rebels 9-3. The Pats have a one-point lead on the Rebels, with both teams facing the same clubs on Saturday.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said other than one big lapse, it was a pretty good night.

“Other than the little two- or three-minute window at the start of the third, I thought it was a pretty solid road effort,” Murray said. “We got scoring from a variety of different players. I’m happy with the effort.”

The Pats opened the scoring six minute five seconds into the game after Zachary Lansard hit the post behind Brandon goalie Jayden Kraus on a partial breakaway. The puck bounced out to the callup forward Schultz and he shovelled into the net.

Wilson tied it just 24 seconds later from behind the net on the next rush when he picked up the rebound off a Brady Turko shot, and as he tried to make a pass out front to Caleb Hadland, he banked the puck into the net off the skate of Regina goalie Marek Schlenker.

Brandon took the lead with a pair of late goals in the middle frame.

At the 18:05 mark, Baumuller found Boehm with a stretch pass as he left the penalty box, sending him in on a two-on-one with Turko. The second-year defenceman elected to shoot, ripping the puck over Schlenker’s glove to give Brandon its first lead.

Just 41 seconds later, Luke Mistelbacher found Bhathal in the slot and he sent a quick shot over the goalie’s blocker to make it 3-1.

The Pats responded 1:43 into the third period with Schultz again firing home a rebound on a shot by Lansard.

Regina completed the comeback 58 seconds later when McNutt beat Kraus from the slot.

The Wheat Kings regained the lead at the 10:30 mark. Nick Johnson cleanly won a draw back to Cameron Allard, who fed his defensive partner Ronald for a heavy one-timer from the blue-line over Schlenker’s blocker.

It was the fifth goal of the season for Ronald, who was in his first game back from injury. At that point, Brandon’s four goal scorers had a combined 18 goals all season.

“One of the strengths of our team throughout the year is our depth,” Murray said. “Wilson answering back right after they scored was big to tie it up in the first and it was a big shot by Nigel coming out of the penalty box and Ronald is on one too and Prabh keeps clipping away.

“Those were four big goals and I don’t know if you would have those four picked on your bingo card, but it’s a credit to the depth we have and good to see those guys contribute offensively as well.”

Trailing 4-3, Regina pulled the goalie for an extra attacker with 2:15 remaining, and 20 seconds later, Baumuller scored from inside his own blue-line.

The Pats summoned Schlenker again when they got the puck deep in the Wheat Kings zone, and with 26.1 seconds left on a feed from Nick Johnson, Baumuller found the empty net again — this from just over centre-ice — for his 40th goal of the season.

“In 10 years he’ll tell people it was an end-to-end rush for his 40th but I’m just real happy for Joby,” Murray said. “He’s such a good kid and exemplifies what a Wheat King is. He came in this season with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder (after being passed over in the National Hockey League draft) and with purpose. I love when good kids get rewarded.”

Kraus made 24 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Schlenker stopping 30 shots for the Pats.

Both clubs went 0-for-2 on the power play.

In it previous three outings, Brandon had lost 3-2 in overtime to Red Deer, 3-1 to the Edmonton Oil Kings and 6-2 to the Saskatoon Blades.

“It’s good to get back in the win column,” Murray said. “When I look back on the Red Deer game, that was one of those games where you certainly don’t like losing but we did a lot of really good things, we just didn’t score in the third period.

“For me, the disappointing part was the Edmonton game and then the Saskatoon game, I didn’t think we really gave ourselves a chance. Sometimes you might not get a bounce of whatever, but those games that are clunkers and you don’t have a chance to be in the game, those are disappointing.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured D Merrek Arpin, F Easton Odut, F Carter Klippenstein and D Grayson Burzynski plus healthy scratches F Gunnar Gleasman and D Daniil Skvortsov … Brandon went to the game’s first power play 22:42 into the game with callup defenceman Cruz Jim on the blue-line. He played on the blue-line on both man advantages … Brandon’s win was its 20th road victory this season … Baumuller led the Wheat Kings with seven shots on net … With the Pats handing out their season-end awards, the game started at 8:20 p.m. (CDT), and took two hours, 24 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, the teams tied 31-31.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

LATE FRIDAY
Wheat Kings 6, Pats 3
First Period
1. Regina, Schultz 14 (Lansard, Karimov) 6:05.
2. Brandon, Wilson 3 (Turko) 6:29.
Penalties — None.
Second Period
3. Brandon, Boehm 2 (Baumuller, Kraus) 18:05.
4. Brandon, Bhathal 8 (Mistelbacher) 18:46.
Penalties — Hadland Bdn (roughing) 2:42, Klassen Reg (holding) 2:42, Mieyette Reg (roughing) 2:42, Egan Bdn (roughing) 6:07, Derkatch Reg (tripping) 11:48, Boehm Bdn (high sticking) 15:57.
Third Period
5. Regina, Schultz 15 (Lansard) 1:38.
6. Regina, McNutt 13 (Egland, Moore) 2:36.
7. Brandon, Ronald 5 (Allard, Johnson) 10:30.
8. Brandon, Baumuller 39 (unassisted) 18:05 (en).
9. Brandon, Baumuller 40 (Johnson) 19:33 (en).
Penalties — Egan Bdn (fighting major) 6:55, Bear Reg (fighting major) 6:55.
Shots on goal by
Brandon     15     8     13     —     36
Regina     10     5     12     —     27
Goal — Brandon: Kraus (W, 14-11-1-0). Regina: Schlenker (L, 18-18-6-1).
Power plays (goals-chances) — Brandon: 0-2; Regina: 0-2.
Referees — Adam Bloski, Ty Skene.
Linesmen — Alex Clarke, Kaden Fiacco.
Attendance — 6,242 in Regina.