Turko brothers lead Wheat Kings to 6-2 win

The Turko brothers each had a goal as the Brandon Wheat Kings beat the visiting Portland Winterhawks 6-2 at Assiniboine Credit Union Place on Wednesday afternoon.

Easten Turko contributed his first Western Hockey League goal and his brother Brady had a goal and an assist, Joby Baumuller sniped twice, Chase Surkan had a goal and an assist and Kris Muissu added an empty netter for Brandon (13-6-0-1), while Reed Brown and Luke Wilfley replied for Portland (7-7-2-1) in front of a noisy, season-high crowd of 4,656.

“It was pretty sweet,” Easten Turko said of his first WHL marker. “Especially in front of these fans, this crowd (Wednesday), it was awesome.”

The Winterhawks opened the scoring on the game’s first power play when the former Wheat Kings prospect Brown deflected a shot by Stevie Grimley past Brandon goalie Filip Ruzicka seven minutes 20 seconds in.

Brandon tied the game four minutes later off the rush. Surkan chipped the puck off the boards past a Portland defender and Colin Grubb picked it and skated down the wall.

Surkan and Joby Baumuller both went hard to the net down the middle and Surkan found Grubb’s pass and sent it by Portland goalie Ondřej Štěbeták.

Brandon took its first lead 55 seconds into the middle frame on a nifty steal by Surkan. The second-year forward from Regina stripped Portland forward Alessandro Domenichelli of the puck near the blue-line and feathered a pass to Baumuller, who skated in on a short breakaway and snapped a shot that beat Štěbeták on the glove side.

The game took a feisty turn 5:16 into the second period when Portland forward Kyle McDonough ran into Ruzicka behind the net and sent the goalie flying. McDonough was promptly jumped by Brandon defenceman Nigel Boehm, who fed him some punches before the Portland forward fell to the ice.

The play went to a lengthy review — all majors now get a look — and McDonough was assessed two minutes while Boehm earned a major and was tossed from the game, much to the consternation of an energetic crowd and the Brandon bench.

That meant the teams played four-on-four for two minutes and then the Winterhawks had a three-minute man advantage.

Brandon managed to kill the man advantage without allowing any outstanding chances, and had the best one when Cole Hunter broke in all alone but was denied by Štěbeták.

The hosts widened the lead off a faceoff late in the period when Easten Turko picked up the puck near the boards, skated in a couple of strides and ripped a shot from above the faceoff dot into the top corner.

“It was an O-zone draw,” Easten Turko said. “Hunts (Cole Hunter) was taking the draw and he snapped it back to Boycer’s feet (Ryan Boyce) and he got the puck to me. I just took it to the net and put it home.”

Naturally, he had a proud big brother watching from the bench when the puck in.

“It’s obviously cool to play in the Western League with your brother on the same team, and to see him get his first goal was super special,” Brady Turko said.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray noted the goal, which came from the team’s fourth line, proved to be the winner and came at an important moment.

“That was huge,” Murray said. “It’s a 50-50 puck that Huntsy won to our side and then Boycer wins a battle and Easten is a good player. He made a real good shot. That made it 3-1 so that was a big part of the game.”

Brandon made it a three-goal lead 2:11 into the third period when Baumuller beat a pair of Portland defenders to the puck and snapped a shot past Štěbeták on the short side.

The Wheat Kings made it 5-1 on a play that could have gone very, very badly. Ilari Kapanen, who was making his return to the lineup after missing 17 games, made a diving play to knock the puck away from three Portland attackers after his pass didn’t get out of the zone.

Brady Turko beat a Portland defenceman to the puck and deked around Štěbeták, who dove out in a desperate attempt to poke it away, and put the puck into the empty net.

“Kappy tried to pass it up to us and it kind of bobbled on him, and then he made a great second effort that got it up the ice,” Brady Turko said. “I got around the defenceman and saw the goalie coming out and poked it around him and then had the whole net to shoot at. I’ve never been that nervous in my life over a shot at an empty net but luckily it went in.”

Just 36 seconds later, however, Wilfley replied with a wicked shot under the cross bar and the visitors were back within three with half a period remaining.

Portland pulled their goalie with 6:50 left as they went to their fifth power play, and Brandon put the game when Brady Turko unselfishly chipped the puck to Muissu in the neutral zone for an empty netter just after the penalty ended.

After the puck went in, the big Russian emphatically pointed at his teammate as a thank you.

“I thought it was a good 60-minute game,” Murray said. “We had four lines going and our D played pretty solid. I thought it was a solid effort by our guys.”

The two brothers agreed.

“We played a full 60 I think,” Easten Turko said. “That’s what we want to be doing at home. We want be hard to play against at home and that’s what we did tonight.”

“I’m really happy with how we played,” Brady Turko added. “We want to be more consistent with our play and I think we’ve done a great job in our last couple of games here at being consistent and playing how we want to play every night.”

Ruzicka made 28 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Štěbeták stopping 20 shots for the Winterhawks.

Brandon went 0-for-2 on the power play, with Portland scoring once in six chances.

Portland head coach Kyle Gustafson said his team played well at times.

“We had a lot of energy from the start,” Gustafson said. “We played a game plan that we wanted for the first 10 minutes and then we let it slip away. We got a little loose with the puck. There were some power plays and penalty kills that disrupted the flow a little but I really liked our start.

“We made the right decisions with the puck, and once the puck was advanced, we were able to get it back. I liked a lot of things in the offensive zone when we were hanging around the net.

“The first 10 minutes is something we’ll take with us. I liked the finishing two minutes of the second period where I thought we gained a little bit of momentum and that it would give us a little bit of a spark going into the third but we just couldn’t capture it.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without F Prabh Bhathal (two-game suspension) and D Josh McGregor (upper body), plus healthy scratches D Ethan Young, F Ryan Boyce, F Hudson Landmark and F Jimmy Egan … More than 40 minor hockey teams were in attendance … Portland doesn’t have a radio broadcaster on the trip, the first time in memory the visiting club didn’t call a game at Assiniboine Credit Union Place for any reason other than illness … Baumuller and Cole Slobodian led the Wheat Kings with four shots each on net … The game took two hours, 34 minutes to play after starting at 4:11 … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 40-28 … The Wheat Kings next see action when they host the Wenatchee Wild on Friday at 7 p.m.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

 

Wheat Kings 6, Winterhawks 2

First Period

1. Portland, R. Brown 7 (Grumley, Domenichelli) 7:20 (pp).

2. Brandon, Surkan 9 (Grubb, E. Turko) 11:38.

Penalties — Turko Bdn (goaltender interference) 5:50, Wilson Bdn (hooking) 15:55.

Second Period

3. Brandon, Baumuller 10 (Surkan) 0:55.

4. Brandon, E. Turko 1 (Boyce, Hunter) 17:17.

Penalties — Jacobson Por (hooking) 1:43, Boehm Bdn (fighting major, game misconduct) 5:16, McDonough Por (goaltender interference) 5:16, Miller Por (interference) 14:55.

Third Period

5. Brandon, Baumuller 11 (Slobodian) 2:11.

6. Brandon, B. Turko 3 (Kapanen) 9:20.

7. Portland, Wilfley 5 (Duguay) 9:56.

8. Brandon, Muissu 14 (B. Turko, Jacobson) 15:48 (en).

Penalties — Kapanen Bdn (roughing) 6:15, Surkan Bdn (tripping) 13:19, Ellingsen Bdn (fighting major) 14:15, Miller Por (fighting major) 16:15.

Shots on goal by

Brandon 8 13 5 — 26

Portland 12 6 12 — 30

Goal — Brandon: Ruzicka (W, 9-5-0-0). Portland: Štěbeták (L, .5-4-1-1).

Power plays (goals-chances) — Brandon: 0-2; Portland: 1-5.

Referees — Nolan Powell, Wyatt Rapsky.

Linesmen — Josh Miko, Logan Young.

Attendance — 4,656 in Brandon.