Wheat Kings edge Wild in overtime thriller

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This article was published 09/04/2022 (1436 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The adage of getting any shot on net in overtime proved wise for Brandon Wheat Kings forward Clarke Caswell on Friday night at the J&G Homes Arena.

At the three-minute mark of the first extra frame, the Swift Current Broncos prospect took a shot from the side of the net that bounced off the right arm of Winnipeg Wild netminder Andrew Ness and into the back of the net to give the Wheat Kings a dramatic 6-5 triumph in Game 1 of the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League final.

“Braden (Keeble) made a nice play walking around the net and he was able to find me,” Caswell said. “I thought to myself ‘If I put the puck on net here, it might not be a bad idea,’ and it ended up sneaking in.

“To be able to celebrate with our fans and all the guys was a pretty special moment that I’ll remember for a long time.”

As expected, the top two teams in the provincial U18 AAA circuit had a back-and-forth battle to kick off the league final.

The Wheat Kings raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, but the Wild worked their way back to make it a 4-3 contest after 40 minutes.

Aidan Wuerfel took advantage of a turnover early in the third period to tie the game up and Kai Elkie would move the visitors in front at the 9:15 mark of the final frame.

“When you get yourself into a situation where you fall behind early and are able to claw your way back, a lot of that comes down to the guys putting in the effort,” Wild head coach Paul Krueger said.

“After the first period, we wanted to make sure that we were making more of an impact in the neutral zone. We gave up a couple of breakaways in the first period, which you can’t do against a team like Brandon, so we did a few things to correct those mistakes on defence and that allowed us to play better with the puck when we were on offence.”

Despite trailing late, the Wheat Kings bounced back as Nolan Chastko scored his second goal of the night with 5:22 left on the clock.

The hosts controlled much of the play at the end of regulation and carried that over into overtime, where Caswell scored on the first shot of the extra frame.

“Whenever this team is down late in a game, it seems like they thrive on that pressure of playing desperate hockey,” Wheat Kings head coach Curtis Brolund said. “There were a few moments where I didn’t think we might get it (the game) back, but the boys battled hard and refused to lose this one.

“I think everyone saw that this is going to be a fast and long series. Both teams are going to have to play a quick game in order to get the job done. I think we’re going to be talking about this matchup for quite a while.”

Carter Dittmer led the way on offence for the Wheat Kings with three assists, while Chastko and Skylar Ramsay had a pair of goals each.

“I was really happy for Skylar,” Brolund said. “He was arguably our best guy on the ice tonight and he was rewarded with two big goals.”

Keeble also had a goal to go along with his assist on Caswell’s game-winner and Mason Lobreau stopped 42 shots to improve his post-season record to 7-0.

While the Wild’s top trio of Noah Dziver, Logan Belton and Keefe Gruener were held off of the scoresheet, it was their depth that made the biggest impact on Friday.

Wuerfel paced the offence with a goal and two assists, with Elkie lighting the lamp twice to go along with markers from Garren Voisey and Ty Genik.

“It’s nice to get some scoring from other guys and we’re going to need that going forward,” Krueger said.

“At this time of the year, a lot of teams are able to shut down lines and there’s going to be games where you need those depth players to help you out on offence.”

Andrew Ness made 31 saves as he suffered his first defeat of the playoffs.

After a day off Saturday, the two sides will return to action at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Bell MTS Iceplex in Winnipeg.

“It’s going to be important for us to not let up like we did tonight in the second period,” Caswell said.

“We laid back too much after getting a big lead, but when we got to back to the basics and did what we have been doing all season, that’s what allowed us to get the win.”

Game 3 will be held at the J&G Homes Arena at 7:30 p.m. next Friday.

If needed, the Wild would host Game 4 on Sunday, April 17, with a fifth and deciding contest taking place in Brandon on Saturday, April 23. 

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