Greig overtime hero for Wheat Kings in Swift Current

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This article was published 15/02/2022 (1450 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the second straight game, it took more than 60 minutes to break a tie between the Swift Current Broncos and Brandon Wheat Kings.

Unlike Friday’s meeting in Brandon — which the Broncos won by a score of 4-3 — it was the Wheat Kings that came out on top Tuesday night in Swift Current.

Ridly Greig was on the receiving end of a give-and-go play with Chad Nychuk and made a nifty move around Broncos netminder Isaac Poulter just 45 seconds into the extra frame to give the Wheat Kings a 3-2 triumph at the Innovation Credit Union iPlex and snap a two-game losing streak in the process.

Wheat Kings head coach Don MacGillivray was pleased with how his team played on the road.

“We worked through a lot of stuff tonight and I thought we did a good job with those challenges,” MacGillivray said.

“It was a tough game and Swift Current played really hard. I would have liked to have seen us bury a few more of our Grade A scoring chances, as those can sometimes come back to bite you, but we managed to get the extra point away from home, which was huge for us.”

One of the obstacles that the 22-15-3-2 Wheat Kings battled through on Tuesday was injuries.

Defenceman Logen Hammett left the game early in the first period with an apparent hand injury, which he sustained after losing an edge behind the Broncos net and crashing hard into the endboards.

The backend went down to four players late in the third period when Owen Harris did not return after being on the receiving end of a hit by Mathew Ward.

The team also saw forward Landon Roberts leave the ice for a bit of time before finishing out the contest, while Jesiah Bennett — who was a late addition to the lineup when Ben Thornton left the ice during warmups due to an illness — was helped back to the bench following the third period when he got tangled up with Broncos forward Cole Nagy in a battle along the boards.

“It’s a wait-and-see process on all of those guys,” MacGillivray said. “Landon finished the game but he looks really sore and I think Ben might be feeling better for Wednesday night (when the Wheat Kings visit the Medicine Hat Tigers) but I’m not really sure.”

As the team dealt with being shorthanded, it was the play of the Wheat Kings blueline that impressed MacGillivray the most.

Nychuk had a two-assist night to extend his point streak to a career-high seven games, while rookie Quinn Mantei scored the first goal of his Western Hockey League career.

“He’s playing really well,” MacGillivray said of the 16-year-old from Weyburn, Sask. “He’s starting to establish his game a lot more. He’s a really good skater and I think he has better skill than he gets credit for.

“It’s hard to single out any one guy though from the defence tonight. Chad and Vinnie (Iorio) were outstanding in the last 40 minutes, while Harris, Mantei and (Jacob) Hoffrogge were really good as well as they ended up playing a ton of minutes for us when we lost Logen.”

In addition to his overtime winner, Greig had an assist on a goal by Rylen Roresma in the second period of play and was involved in a first period fight Eric Van Impe to record a Gordie Howe hat trick.

Ethan Kruger stopped 18 shots for his 16th win of the campaign.

The 17-24-5-1 Broncos, who have lost two games in a row and are now one point behind the Lethbridge Hurricanes for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, got their goals from Carter Stebbings and Josh Davies.

Overage netminder Isaac Poulter was solid once again as he made 22 saves for the home side.

The Wheat Kings found themselves in penalty trouble early on as Harris took a delay of game minor after two-and-a-half minutes.

Just as they had killed off that penalty, Marcus Kallionkieli received a double minor for checking from behind, as he slammed Sam McGinley into the boards.

The Broncos defenceman did not return to the game.

Swift Current had opportunities to open the scoring but were unable to solve Kruger, who made a big stop on Nagy during the four-minute penalty kill.

After being outshot 8-4 in the first period, the Wheat Kings had a great chance to take the lead early in the second when Harris pinched in to try and covert a pass from Iorio, only to have Poulter come across the crease and punch the puck away with his blocker.

Brandon would finally solve the Broncos netminder at the 11:10 mark of the middle stanza, when Nychuk took the puck off the boards and fed it to Greig.

The Ottawa Senators then made a pass to Roresma who put away his 13th goal of the season.

Mantei’s first career marker came nearly a minute later, as he took a long shot from the point that fooled Poulter.

It was nearly a 3-0 lead with five-and-a-half minutes left in the second, but Nate Danielson’s shot on goal went off the post.

On the ensuing Broncos rush, Nagy left the puck for Stebbings, who worked his way towards the net and fired a shot underneath the glove of Kruger.

The Wheat Kings would be stymied by the goalposts yet again late in the frame, when a shorthanded chance by Nychuk rang off the iron.

Swift Current responded a few seconds later on a strange play.

Connor Hvidston’s pass from behind the net bounced off of Hoffrogge’s skate and then Kruger, before ending up on the stick of Mantei.

As the Wheat Kings defenceman tried to move the puck out of danger, Davies swiped it away and slit it past Kruger to tie things up at two with 1:58 left to go in the second.

Davies had the best chance to settle the game in the third period, when he had a breakaway with 5:38 to go.

However, the Broncos forward couldn’t get the puck to settle down and his backhander was stopped by Kruger to keep things knotted up at two.

Following Wednesday’s game in Medicine Hat, the Wheat Kings will travel to Lethbridge Friday for a meeting with the Hurricanes.

They will conclude their four-game road trip Saturday with a rematch against the Broncos.

ICINGS: In addition to Thornton, Jake Chiasson (upper body, week-to-week), Mason Ward (lower body, day-to-day), Caron Bjarnason (personal leave) and Zach Turner (healthy scratch) did not dress for the Wheat Kings. Nicholas Jones has been called up for the road trip to serve as the backup to Kruger in Bjarnason’s absence.

 

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