McCorrister leads Wheat Kings to victory

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This article was published 21/10/2017 (3092 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Linden McCorrister scored his first Western Hockey League hat trick as the Brandon Wheat Kings edged the visiting Victoria Royals 4-2 at Westman Place on Saturday.

Tanner Kaspick added the winner, Kale Clague had three assists and Stelio Mattheos had two as Brandon (9-3-0-1) won their eighth game in their last nine outings.

“It was unbelievable out there,” McCorrister said. “Stels (Mattheos) made an unbelievable play out there and then Evan (Weinger) too for the empty netter. I’m grateful to be able to play with those guys.”

Tyler Soy and Matthew Phillips replied for Victoria (9-3-1-0), who lead the B.C. Division. 

Brandon head coach David Anning said it was an impressive evening for both clubs.

“It was a very close hockey game,” Anning said. “I thought both teams played well, I thought both teams had good speed to their game, I thought as the game went on it was tight checking, it was exciting. It was an entertaining hockey game and I thought both teams did everything they could to get two points.”

After killing an early penalty, Brandon’s hot power-play unit found the back of the net five minutes into the first period when McCorrister pounced on the puck in a wild scramble in front of Victoria starting goalie Dean McNabb and lifted it into the top of the net.

The lead lasted for all of 71 seconds. Soy grabbed a loose puck in front of Brandon starting goalie Logan Thompson and sent a quick shot over his shoulder.

Despite killing a penalty early in the second period, Victoria had two breakaways and a two-on-one in the first four minutes of the middle frame. They finally capitalized off a faceoff during four-on-four play, when Dante Hannoun got the puck to Phillips, who wristed a shot by Thompson’s blocker 13:52 into the second period.

McCorrister tied the game four minutes later with the man advantage. Mattheos skated through the Victoria penalty killers until he was taken down in front of the net. The puck popped out to McCorrister, who sent it into a wide open cage. 

Brandon retook the lead 8:25 into the third period when Kaspick burst down the wing and swung into the middle with the puck, jamming it by McNabb for his fourth of the season. 

“Lewy chipped it to me in the middle in our own zone and I just tried to get to the far side of the ice because I saw some open ice over there,” he said. “Once I got over there my first thought was to drive wide and take the puck to the net and I did that, and fortunately it went in.”

McCorrister’s hat trick came with the Victoria net empty in the final minute. Weinger drew the defender to the boards and then feathered a pass over to McCorrister, who carefully deposited it into the net for the hat trick.

“I picked the puck up in my skates and I kind of took my time with the puck and made sure that I put it right into the middle of the net,” McCorrister said. 

With the victory, Brandon took over first place in the East Division with 19 points, one ahead of the Swift Current Broncos, who have two games in hand. The Broncos lost 5-4 in overtime to the Kootenay Ice on Saturday in Cranbrook, B.C.

The Royals and Wheat Kings are only teams in the league with 19 points.

“We were happy with how we worked our way through the game,” Anning said. “I thought that we did a lot of really good things. I thought our play without the puck is as good as we’ve seen this year. It was probably our most complete effort of the season and that’s what we knew it was going to take to play against a high-end team. To get two points and have a quality weekend, we’re really encouraged.”

In an outstanding goaltending duel, Thompson made 24 saves for the Wheat Kings, with McNabb stopping 37 shots for the Royals. 

Brandon went 2-for-8 on the power play, with Victoria scoreless in seven chances.

Victoria head coach Dan Price said it was a game either squad could have won.

“It was two good teams going at it,” he said. “There were a lot of chances both ways. It was two fast teams, and I thought the game was extremely competitive. Brandon capitalized on their opportunities towards the end of the game and so credit to them for doing that.”

ICINGS: Brandon was without injured defencemen Garrett Sambrook, James Shearer and Daniel Bukac, along with healthy scratches Marcus Sekundiak, Lynden McCallum and Ben McCartney …  McCorrister’s last multi-goal game was March 18, 2016. He has nine goals in his WHL career … Brandon scored six power-play goals in its two-game homestand against Victoria and the Vancouver Giants.