Tigers bully, maul listless Wheat Kings

Medicine Hat Tigers forward Luke Cozens had a hat trick as the Brandon Wheat Kings had their five-game winning streak snapped in emphatic fashion on Saturday evening, falling 8-1 in Western Hockey League action at Assiniboine Credit Union Place.

Medicine Hat (5-3-0-1) received its other goals from Owen Hayes, Markus Ruck, Dayton Reschny, Riley Steen and Jake Burmis, with Kris Muissu replying for Brandon (7-3-0-0) in front of a crowd of 2,640.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said it was a disappointing return for his club, which hadn’t played at home since Sept. 25.

“Guys played real hard on the road trip and got a little buzz going for us and some excitement from the fans, so it’s unfortunate to come back and lay an egg here tonight,” Murray said. “The good thing about it is we have a quick turn-around. Hopefully we can have a good response tomorrow and put it behind us.”

Overage forward Brett Wilson, who scored his first goal of the season as Brandon went 5-1 in its trip through the B.C. Division, echoed Murray’s message.

“Obviously that’s not the outcome we want or anything we can be really proud about,” Wilson said. “We’ll scrap that and have short memories here. We have a quick turn-around for (Sunday). We’re coming off some momentum off the road trip but we took a little step back there and have to get back on track tomorrow.”

The Wheat Kings host the Prince Albert Raiders on Sunday at 4 p.m.

In an encouraging sign for the home club, Brandon pressed on the first shift, with Medicine Hat goalie Carter Casey denying Brandon forward Colin Grubb on a breakaway.

“We had a good first couple of shifts,” Murray said. “You always want your first rotation to be strong and ours was OK. We had a breakaway early. They push. They’re a good hockey team with a lot of ways to beat you with their skill and their heaviness, and they dominated both aspects tonight.”

The Tigers opened the scoring on a tap-in off a zone entry when Kadon McCann got the puck across to Hayes, who had gone hard to the net. The goal came seven minutes 55 seconds into the opening frame.

They visitors made it 2-0 at the 16:51 mark during their first power play when the Tigers moved the puck around smartly and Cozens blasted in a one-timer. The shots at that point were 17-4 as the Wheat Kings looked completely flummoxed by a big, physical opponent instead of the smaller, lightning-fast Tigers squads of recent years.

Just over a minute later, Brandon came in off the rush and Chase Surkan fought off Medicine Hat defenders to get the puck over to Muissu, who sent a quick shot from an awkward spot over the shoulder of Casey for Brandon’s first sign of life since the opening shift.

The visitors regained the two-goal lead 3:16 into the second period off a Brandon turnover in their own zone when Josh Evaschesen fed Marcus Ruck in the slot and he fired a bullet past goalie Filip Ruzicka into the top of the net.

They made it 4-1 just 63 seconds later when Reschny blasted a shot through traffic that Ruzicka had no chance on.

The Wheat Kings had a two-on-one two minutes later but Casey made a sensational save on Surkan as he came across in the splits and found the puck with his blocker.

The goals kept coming at the other end, with Cozens banking in a shot off a Brandon defender three minutes later, and he added his hat trick goal at the 10:15 mark with a shot from the top of the circle through traffic.

That spelled the end of Ruzicka’s night, with Weyburn Red Wings goalie Ethan Berard making his WHL debut after he was called up on Thursday due to an injury to backup Ryley Budd.

Brandon came on after the change and actually put the puck into the net 14:51 into the period but it was quickly called off because it went in off Muissu’s glove.

The Tigers added a seventh goal at the 5:39 mark when the defenceman Steen beat Berard high to the glove 5:39 into the third frame.

The puck went in again 7:32 into the period when Tigers forward Yaroslav Bryzgalov shot it in as he made contact with the Brandon goalie. The referees immediately convened outside the penalty box, and after a brief conference, judged it was no goal, much to the displeasure of the Russian forward, who was sitting on the bench by that time.

They made it 8-1 with the teams playing four-on-four when Burmis picked up the puck and found a high spot on the short side for his first WHL goal.

“It was a lot of little things that make the whole thing go off the track,” Wilson said. “We weren’t making crisp passes, we got outworked. They were meaner and bullied us. There’s no excuse. We have to be stronger than that.”

Brandon managed just one shot as they went 0-for-2 on the power play, with Medicine Hat scoring once in their only chance.

Medicine Hat head coach Willie Desjardins was gracious in victory.

“We were fortunate,” Desjardins said. “We haven’t played great and Brandon might have thought it was going to be a little easier. They’ve got a really good team. They proved it on the road going 5-1 in B.C., not many teams do that. I was happy with our performance tonight. I thought our guys played hard.”

Ruzicka made 23 saves and Berard had 14 for the Wheat Kings, with Casey stopping 32 shots for the Tigers as Brandon was outshot for the seventh game in a row and ninth time in 10 games this season.

Murray said the number of shots they were giving up on the road trip was acceptable but they’ve now allowed more than 40 shots in all three games at home.

“When you get over 35 against, that’s concerning,” Murray said. “We’ll look at the tape but making clean exits … I thought in the first period our neutral zone play wasn’t very good. We turned a lot of pucks over on entry. Their best players get up behind our D and get it back and then they play in the fun zone.

“It’s a good message that it has to be everybody, it can’t be a home-run play off the rush all the time, it has to be that if a play is there, make it, and if not, you have to get back to the meat and potatoes of the game.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured D Ilari Kapanen and F Gunnar Gleasman, with the healthy scratches including D Ethan Young and F Jimmy Egan. Newly acquired F Aiden Foster is suspended and won’t debut until next week … Linesperson Josh Blondeau took a hard shot early in the second period and was clearly in some discomfort as the play continued. He stayed in the game and the other linesperson, Andrew Paul, also was hit by the puck later in the period … Cole Slobodian led the Wheat Kings with five shots on net … The game took two hours, 32 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 46-26.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

SATURDAY

Tigers 8, Wheat Kings 1

First Period

1. Medicine Hat, Hayes 1 (McCann, Burmis) 7:55.

2. Medicine Hat, Cozens 6 (L. Ruck, M. Ruck) 16:51 (pp).

3. Brandon, Muissu 5 (Surkan, E. Turko) 18:18.

Penalties — McGregor Bdn (fighting major) 2:54, Holberton MH (fighting major, unsportsmanlike conduct) 2:54, Surkan Bdn (hooking) 16:11,

Second Period

4. Medicine Hat, M. Ruck 3 (Evaschesen) 3:16.

5. Medicine Hat, Reschny 2 (Steen) 4:19.

6. Medicine Hat, Cozens 7 (Steen, Gordon-Carroll) 7:18.

7. Medicine Hat, Cozens 8 (Phillips) 10:15.

Penalties — None.

Third Period

8. Medicine Hat, Steen 1 (McCann, Reschny) 5:39.

9. Medicine Hat, Burmis 1 (unassisted) 14:27.

Penalties — Phillips MH (cross checking) 7:50, Boyce Bdn (fighting major) 11:14, Phillips MH (fighting major) 11:14, Bhathal Bdn (slashing) 13:43 Pasler MH (cross checking) 13:43.

Shots on goal by

Brandon 6 13 14 — 33

Medicine Hat 19 14 12 — 45

Goal (shots-saves) — Medicine Hat: Casey (33-32) (W, 4-3-0-0); Brandon: Ruzicka (29-23) (L, 4-2-0-0), Berard (10:15, 2nd period) (16-14).

Power plays (goals-chances) — Brandon: 0-2; Medicine Hat: 1-1.

Referees — Josh Grimm, Bob Millette.

Linesmen — Josh Blondeau, Andrew Paul.

Attendance — 2,640 in Brandon.