Wheat Kings run streak to three

The Brandon Wheat Kings received goals from five different players as they won their third game in a row, handing the Wenatchee Wild a 5-1 defeat in Western Hockey League action at Assiniboine Credit Union Place on Friday.

Chase Surkan, Joby Baumuller, Brady Turko, Cole Slobodian and Jaxon Jacobson scored for Brandon (14-6-0-1), with Mathias Silaban replying for Wenatchee (6-11-1-0) in front of a crowd of 3,223.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said his club — which beat the Portland Winterhawks on Wednesday and then enjoyed the Brandon Wheat Kings Foundation’s Black and Gold Gala on Thursday — was happy to be playing in front of a large group of former Wheat Kings players on Friday.

“It’s been a fun week,” Murray said. “The Remembrance Day game is always a big one here and we had nice crowd and played well in front of them, and then the Gala last night, and then tonight it’s an alumni evening and a good crowd again. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was nice to win by multiple goals.”

Brandon had to kill its first penalty just 71 seconds into the game, and after it ended, Jacobson hopped out of the box, outduelled Wenatchee defender Darian Rolsing for the puck and sent a pass into the slot for Surkan to wire past Wenatchee goalie Tobias Tvrznik.

Just 38 seconds later, Baumuller skated out of the corner to the faceoff dot and ripped a shot into the top of the net for an unassisted goal and it was 2-0 four minutes 18 seconds into the game.

The Wheat Kings made it 3-0 at the 16:42 mark when rookie forward Levi Ellingsen did some hard work behind the net and got it out to Brady Turko, who snuck the puck in on the short side between the goalie and the post.

Brandon took a third minor penalty before the period ended, and a fourth one 20 seconds into the second period, giving the Wild a 70-second, five-on-three power play.

By the time the penalties were killed, Wenatchee had evened the shot clock 15-15, but Brandon continued to lead 3-0.

At the 4:27 mark of the second period, the hosts made it 4-0 when Slobodian pounded in a shot off the far post moments after Ellingsen rang a shot off the crossbar. Second-year forward Gunnar Gleasman, who had five goals last season, drew the first assist of his WHL career on the goal.

“It feels good,” Gleasman said. “Honestly, I was so in the moment I didn’t even realize I touched the puck. It was a good shot by Cole and he’s got to keep shooting the puck because he has a good shot.”

That spelled the end of the night for the Czech netminder Tvrznik, who was replaced by Carsten Leyerzapf of Calgary.

Brandon goalie Filip Ruzickabon made his best save on the 20th shot against when outstanding 15-year-old forward Parker McMillan — the second overall pick in the 2026 WHL draft — fired a shot on a partial break that the Czech netminder turned away with his pad.

The Wild finally found the back of the net 15:22 into the middle frame on a scrambled play in the Brandon zone when the puck popped out to Silaban in the slot and he put a shot off the post and in behind Ruzicka’s blocker.

The Wheat Kings responded two minutes later on the power play when they moved the puck around as the Wild failed to clear and Jacobson blasted a long slapshot in through a maze of bodies with what proved to be the final goal of the evening.

“We were pretty fired up after the gala last night,” Gleasman said. “We have a bunch of great alumni, and we’re pretty inspired by the tradition we’re carrying forward. I’m proud of the group. I thought we worked pretty hard.”

Brandon went 1-for-3 on the power play, with Wenatchee unsuccessful in six chances. Slobodian anchored the penalty kill with Nigel Boehm serving the first of a two-game suspension for a one-man fight against Portland after he jumped Kyle McDonough following the forward’s collision with Ruzicka.

“The PK did an outstanding job, and I think that’s back-to-back games we’ve done a real good job. For me, we took too many penalties. I thought we had a lot of reaching and hooking and holding, and those end up biting you. Our PK was strong and with the absence of Nigel, I thought Cole really expanded his role.”

Ruzicka made 25 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Tvrznik and Leyerzapf combining to stop 32 shots for the Wild.

Wenatchee head coach Don Nachbaur said his club played better than they did in their trip-opening 4-0 loss to the Swift Current Broncos on Wednesday.

“I thought we competed a lot harder than we did in Swift Current,” Nachbaur said. “These trips are really hard, especially after you travel. We gave up three quick goals in the first period and we can’t recover from that. We just don’t have a lot of scoring on our team.

“We’re a relatively young team. I had three 16 year olds and a 15 year old playing tonight and they all took a regular shift. We’re going to take it on the chin some nights and we’re going to play real well, but it’s up and down because of our age. At the end, we didn’t quit, so I’m happy about that.”

ICINGS: Brandon also skated without suspended F Prabh Bhathal (second of two games), injured D Josh McGregor and F Jimmy Egan and healthy scratch was F Hudson Landmark … Jacobson led the Wheat Kings with seven shots on net … The game took two hours, 25 minutes to play after starting at 7:09 … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 34-31. The Wheat Kings are now 16-4-1 at the faceoff dot this season … Ellingsen left the game early after taking a hard hit.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com