Wheaties rebound to earn first road win

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This article was published 10/10/2021 (1710 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chad Nychuk scored twice and Carson Bjarnason won his first Western Hockey League start as the Brandon Wheat Kings beat the Regina Pats 4-2 in Western Hockey League action at Brandt Place on Sunday afternoon.

With starting goalie Ethan Kruger out of the lineup after suffering an injury on Saturday evening, Bjarnason made his first WHL start a success with 39 saves.

Brandon (2-3-0-0) received its other goals from Logen Hammett and Rylen Roersma, with Cole Dubinsky and Cole Carrier replying for Regina (2-3-0-0).

It was the third game in three days for the Wheat Kings. Brandon beat the Prince Albert Raiders 5-2 on Friday and lost 6-2 to the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday.

Brandon head coach Don MacGillivray said his 16-year-old netminder had a terrific outing in relief of Kruger, who is listed as day to day with a lower-body injury. 

“He was big and he was square,” MacGillivray said of Bjarnason, who was named first star. “He froze the puck when he needed to, pucks missed the net because he was challenging in the right spots. He played an outstanding game. He gave us a chance to win.”

After a scoreless opening frame in which the visitors were outshot 13-6, Roersma knocked the puck in with a high stick three minutes into the second period. The play went to a review because a Pats defenceman was swinging his glove at the puck at the same time, but replays conclusively showed Roersma made contact so it was ruled no goal.

The next time Brandon found the back of the net, it counted.

Seven minutes into the second period, Tyson Zimmer fed Riley Ginnell, who sent the puck back across the ice to Nychuk, and the overager from Rossburn swatted it past Regina goalie Matthew Kieper.

Five minutes later, the Wheat Kings put the Pats back on the power play, and it took just 35 seconds for Dubinsky, the son of former Wheat King Mike Dubinsky, to bank a shot by Bjarnason to tie the game 1-1. 

The game turned on a four-goal third period.

In front of family and friends in his hometown, Brandon defenceman Hammett ripped a one-timer on the power play through Kieper’s legs into the Regina net eight minutes into the final frame to restore Brandon’s lead. The play was made possible moments earlier when Nychuk knocked the puck out of the air with his stick at the blue-line to keep the play alive.

The Pats swarmed in the final minutes of regulation — especially when the teams played two minutes of four-on-four — but Bjarnason and Brandon defenders managed to keep the puck out of the net.

With the Regina net empty after the hosts took a timeout, Nychuk danced around Pats star Connor Bedard and fired the puck from centre-ice for his second goal of the game, and just 16 seconds later Roersma also found the empty net.

The Pats replied with nine seconds remaining in the third period when Carrier’s shot from the point found its way through traffic and past Bjarnason for the 4-2 final.

It’s the first time Brandon defenceman have scored this season, although who is less important to the head coach than how many. He said the three goals from the back end were certainly appreciated.

“I don’t care where it comes from, to be honest with you,” MacGillivray said with a chuckle. “It was a big goal to get on the power play — it kind of gave us a little bit of breathing room so to speak, you’re not squeezing your sticks so tight — and then to get the insurance marker was big too.

“There were nice plays. The first goal was a really nice play by Nychuk.”

MacGillivray said that along with Nychuk and Hammett, rookies Quinn Mantei, Zach Turner and Owen Harris also played well.

“I thought the D corps as a whole played a lot better tonight,” MacGillivray said. 

He added that Nychuk played his best game of the season, not just because of the three points, but because he defended well.

Kieper stopped 20 shots for the Pats, who scored once in four power-play chances. Brandon went 1-for-3. 

“I thought we did a pretty good job,” MacGillivray said. “They got the one on the power play and we talked about that look, we just needed to correct our positioning a little bit there and we had a chance to get the puck out before they scored and when you don’t get it out, that’s usually what happens. 

“I thought we had some big kills that could have let the game get away from us, and our power play goal was huge.”

Brandon will take Monday off, practise early Tuesday morning and then leave for Saskatoon, where they meet the Blades on Wednesday evening.

ICINGS: Brandon played without F Jake Chiasson (upper-body, long term), F Marcus Kallionkieli (lower body, day to day), D Mason Ward (upper-body, day-to-day), F Brett Hyland (lower body, day-today), D Neithan Salame (lower body, day-today) and F Zakhar Polshakov (hasn’t arrived in Canada yet due to visa issues) … Regina won the battle in the faceoff dot 37-30 … Ridly Greig led the Wheat Kings with five shots on net … The game took 2:30 to play … Brandon’s next home game is Saturday when they host the Swift Current Broncos. Game time is 7 p.m.

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