Danielson injured in Wheat Kings loss to Pats

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This article was published 02/03/2022 (1525 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the players on the ice and the fans in the stands at Westoba Place, their thoughts at the end of Wednesday’s Western Hockey League game were with Brandon Wheat Kings forward Nate Danielson.

The 17-year-old from Red Deer was stretched off of the ice after crashing hard into the end boards in a race for the puck with Pats defenceman Ryker Evans with 4:30 to go in the third period of play.

The team announced shortly after the contest, which the Pats won by a score of 7-6, that Danielson was transferred to the Brandon Regional Health Centre as a precautionary move and that he was being evaluated.

An update on his condition will be made by the Wheat Kings when it becomes available.

“Our medical team and their trainer (Greg Mayer) were both out there right away so we all knew pretty quickly that it was serious,” Wheat Kings head coach Don MacGillivray said. “I haven’t seen the play and I don’t know what injuries Nate has at this stage. We’re all concerned for ‘Danny’ and it’s obviously something you don’t want to see happen.”

“Obviously it’s a terrible situation but as a player, there’s not much you can do about it after he’s taken off the ice,” Wheat Kings forward Nolan Ritchie added. “You have to get back out there and battle for those last four-and-a-half minutes and then find out how he’s doing once the game ends.”

Danielson’s injury put a damper on what had been an entertaining back-and-forth high-scoring contest between the East Division rivals.

It marked the second straight Wednesday night that the Wheat Kings had been in a track meet style of game, as they picked up a 6-5 overtime triumph over the Saskatoon Blades last week.

“It’s nice to score that many goals in a game but we should be getting the two points when we are putting up six goals,” Ritchie said.

“We aren’t battling hard in the defensive zone to get the puck hard. We need to compete and battle in the corners and make the right plays to get the pucks out. Giving up seven goals a night is not a recipe for success.”

The high-scoring game wasn’t what MacGillivray had envisioned for his side, especially as the team’s defence that was without Logen Hammett and Mason Ward due to injuries, while Vincent Iorio was sidelined with an illness.

“When you have a younger defensive core out there, they need more help and not less,” MacGillivray said.

“We didn’t do a good enough job of getting back and helping our guys tonight, especially at forward. Instead of playing the right way, we were cheating a little bit.”

Ethan Kruger got the start in goal but was pulled from the game after allowing three goals on 14 shots in the first period.

Carson Bjarnason made 22 saves in relief as he made his first appearance since a 4-3 overtime loss to the Swift Current Broncos on Feb. 11.

“I didn’t think Ethan was on the top of his game tonight and it was still early enough to get ‘Barney’ some playing time,” MacGillivray said.

“Our goalies did make some big saves, but they gave up some big rebounds as well, which made things tough for our defence.”

At the other end of the rink, the 20-26-2-1 Pats were able to snap a three-game losing streak and are now four points back of the Calgary Hitmen, Swift Current Broncos and Lethbridge Hurricanes in the race for the final playoff spot in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.

“Brandon was all over us at the start of the game and I’m really proud of how the guys battled back to tie things up at three at the end of the first period,” said Brandonite and Pats assistant coach Ken Schneider.

“We had been so close to earning wins on our last road trip out West, but we only had one point to show for it. We’re a young team that’s trying to learn how to win those tight games and we were able to get over that hump tonight.”

Rookie forward Tanner Howe led the way for the Pats with two goals and an assist, while Stanislav Svozil also had a pair of goals.

Braxton Whitehead, Layton Feist and Easton Armstrong also scored for the visitors, who had two-assist outings from former Wheat Kings blue-liner Neithan Salame and Connor Bedard to go along with a 40-save performance from Drew Sim.

The 26-16-3-2 Wheat Kings, who have lost two straight games, were led on offence by Ritchie.

He had two goals and an assist in the setback, which nearly saw him record his first hat trick before his third period marker was called back following an offside review.

Brett Hyland also scored twice in the triumph, with his second goal being a candidate for Wheat Kings play of the year as he muscled the puck away from Howe, spun around to the front of the net and roofed a shot by Sim.

Danielson had a goal and an assist for the hosts, who also got a goal from Riley Ginnell and two assists nights from Marcus Kallionkieli and Ridly Greig.

The Wheat Kings will look to return to the win column Friday night at 7 p.m. against the visiting Hurricanes before a Saturday road meeting with the Moose Jaw Warriors.

“We obviously have a couple of lines right now that are really good offensively, but that doesn’t necessarily give us balance throughout the lineup,” MacGillivray said. “We’re going to address that, in addition to making sure that we are taking the risk out of our game.

“We’re confident in our ability to score goals but we need to apply some patience to our game. That’s what we did on the road a couple of weeks ago when we won those tight games.”

ICINGS: In addition to Hammett, Iorio and Ward, Jake Chiasson and Tyson Zimmer did not dress for the Wheat Kings on Wednesday … The Pats were without the services of Matthew Kieper, Cole Dubinsky, Borya Valis and Logan Nijhoff … Eastyn Mannix, Brandon’s fourth round pick in 2020, made his debut on the Wheat Kings blue-line Wednesday. The 17-year-old from Wainwright, Alta – who has 20 points in 31 games with the Northern Alberta Xtreme U18 Prep program – will be with the club through this weekend … Greig extended his point streak to eight games with his two-assist night, while Bedard and Howe are now 13- and 10-game runs of form respectively.

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