Raiders double up on Wheat Kings

Too many Brandon Wheat Kings are on a first-name basis with the penalty box attendant at Art Hauser Centre after Wednesday night.

The Prince Albert Raiders scored twice on seven power plays to beat Brandon 4-2 in Western Hockey League action.

Chase Surkan and Aiden Foster scored for Brandon (10-5-0-0), while Brandon Gorzynski, Benett Kelly, Riley Boychuk and Jonah Sivertson found the net for Prince Albert (5-6-1-2) in front of a crowd of 2,475.

“I don’t think it was our best effort. The story of our game was we took too many penalties again,” said Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Marty Murray.

“It’s very stressful on the penalty-killing unit for sure. You have five defencemen early in the first period and put guys in stressful situations.

“The unfortunate part was a lot of our penalties were lazy penalties like stick reaching and hooking, things like that. Those end up hurting you.”

The Wheat Kings’ first great chance came eight minutes in when Kris Muissu fired a pass to an open Colin Grubb streaking towards the net. The pass was tipped to Joby Baumuller, who one-timed it off the right post.

A minute later, Brandon’s active sticks in the neutral zone paid off when Grubb deflected a Henry Chmiel pass to Surkan, who poked it through for a breakaway and forced Prince Albert goaltender Steele Bass into the splits with a nasty deke before tucking it in to open the scoring 9:21 into the game.

The penalty box saw as much action as a Brandon ballot box on election night during the next few minutes.

Sivertson popped Brett Wilson when he thought the Wheat King forward had the puck, drawing an interference penalty midway through the frame.

They nearly gave up an ugly short-handed goal when Josh McGregor fell down and Brandon netminder Filip Ruzicka misplayed the puck but got away with it.

Cameron Allard killed the man-advantage by taking a penalty, and Cole Hunter made it worse by taking another.

Sivertson repaid the favour with a slashing penalty to end the 5-on-3, and Ruzicka stood tall while the Wheat Kings got back to even strength.

That didn’t last long. Brady Turko took a tripping minor, which proved costly.

Gorzynski wired a one-timer top shelf 17 seconds into the power play to tie the game.

The Raiders took the lead with 25 seconds left in the frame when Kelly tried a back-post pass and it deflected off Ruzicka’s left skate and in.

The Wheat Kings survived another penalty kill early in the second period, but weren’t able to generate much on the offensive end.

They managed just nine shots on goal through the first half of the contest, while the Raiders had racked up 21 to that point.

Brandon created a few quality chances on their first power play of the middle frame, and if nothing else, gave Ruzicka a mental break. The netminder went nine minutes without seeing a shot.

Meanwhile, Jacobson nearly set up the tying goal when he stole the puck behind the Raiders’ net and flipped it back to Aiden Foster for a one-timer that Bass blocked.

When Ruzicka finally saw some action, it wasn’t just a Darius Hordal blast from the slot, but a stumbling Sivertson falling on top of him immediately after the save. He spent the next 30 seconds without his stick, but made it to the intermission still down 2-1.

The third period started hot and didn’t take long to boil over. Foster laid a big hit behind the Prince Albert net, leading to a scuffle and three minors, with two going to the visitors.

It didn’t take long for the Raiders to make that one hurt when Brock Cripps connected with Riley Boychuk just left of the net, and he jammed it past Ruzicka to double the lead.

A total melee followed, and it also led to Brandon going down a man.

The Wheat Kings stayed down two until Wilson drew a penalty midway through the third, and Brandon nearly narrowed the gap when Brady Turko slipped the puck across the crease to Foster, who slid it behind Bass across the front of the net. Turko tried a tough-angle shot and Bass flashed his glove to catch a puck that may or may not have been headed for twine.

Foster cut the lead to 3-2 with less than five minutes left off a good pass by Jacobson, sending him in alone to wire a wrist shot through the five-hole.

Brandon pushed for the tying goal, but with the net empty, turned it over to the Raiders, who raced down to the other end and let Sivertson deliver the finishing touch.

“We got some legs back and started playing our game a little bit,” Murray said.

“We had eight, nine good shots in the third period, so that’s a good thing. But we wasted a lot of energy with our penalty killing. Especially last night, played in Moose Jaw, travelling … those are hard minutes and hurt us (Wednesday).”

The Wheat Kings went 0-for-4 on the power play. They return to action at home on Friday at 7 p.m., against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

The Wheat Kings then host the Swift Current Broncos on Sunday at 4 p.m.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com