Ritchie lifts Wheat Kings to overtime win over Hitmen

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This article was published 09/03/2022 (1467 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After witnessing some high-scoring games lately at Westoba Place, Brandon Wheat Kings fans were treated to a tight-contested overtime affair on Wednesday night.

Nolan Ritchie was the hero for his hometown team as he sniped a shot over the glove hand of Calgary Hitmen netminder Ethan Buenaventura and into the top left corner of the net just 71 seconds into the extra frame as the Wheat Kings picked up a 2-1 triumph and improved their record to 28-18-3-2 in the process

“I saw Vinny (Iorio) holding the puck deep when I came off of the bench, so I tried to just get as much speed as I could,” Ritchie said.

“When he got the puck over to me on the far side, I wanted to get the puck on net as quick as possible and luckily it went in.”

Ritchie – who leads the Wheat Kings in goals with 26 in 50 games – admitted that he drew back on a shot attempt he had late in the third period when he fired the game-winning goal off of his stick.

With a minute and 26 seconds to go in regulation, Ritchie’s attempt on net bounced off of the right shoulder of Buenaventura and landed in front of the Hitmen goalie, who was able to cover the puck up before any of the Wheat Kings could convert a rebound.

“Since that shot was so close to going in, I thought I would switch it up and aim for the other side in overtime,” Ritchie said.

“Even though we didn’t score in the third period, I thought we had a lot of chances in the final five minutes. You have to give credit to Ethan though. He played a really good game.”

The Wheat Kings were inches away from losing in regulation, however.

Hitmen forward Sean Tschigerl had a wide-open net to shoot at with 7.6 seconds left on the clock, but Carson Bjarnason was able to slide across the crease in the nick of time to make the save.

That was one of 32 stops made by the 16-year-old rookie from Carberry as he earned first star honours and his seventh victory of the season.

“Other than a couple of games early in the season when we had a depleted lineup in front of him, Carson has given us a chance to win every night he’s played,” Wheat Kings head coach Don MacGillivray said.

“He’s really good in traffic and when the games are close late, he does a great job of getting tight down low. For a 16-year-old, he’s showing a lot of confidence for us lately and this was a big game for him tonight.”

After allowing five or more goals in three of their last four home games, MacGillivray was pleased with the Wheat Kings’ improvements in their defensive play.

“I thought we had some really good shifts that allowed us to do what we wanted to do in terms of keeping our goals against down,” MacGillivray said.

“We created enough chances to score, but we just weren’t able to bury it. Give credit to both goalies, as they made this a tight game where one mistake could probably cost you.”

Although the 20-26-5-2 Hitmen have now lost four straight games, Buenaventura’s 37-save performance earned them a valuable loser point.

They are now a single marker ahead of the Prince Albert Raiders and the Swift Current Broncos, in addition to being three points up on the Regina Pats, in the battle for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

They are also two points back of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, who dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Saskatoon Blades on Wednesday.

Rylen Roersma provided the offence in regulation for Brandon as he went bar-down on Buenaventura midway through the first period.

Fiddler-Schultz countered for the Hitmen by redirecting a point shot from Briggs Orr into the back of the net during the middle stanza.

The Wheat Kings will return to action Friday at Westoba Place in a 7 p.m. matchup with the 37-9-3-2 Winnipeg Ice, who clinched a playoff spot Tuesday by shutting out the Hurricanes in a 2-0 affair.

“We’re going to need to shut down their top guys,” Ritchie said. “They have a high-powered offence so we’re going to have to play well on defence once again, in addition to getting as many shots on their goalie as we possibly can.”

The provincial rivals will also square off on Saturday evening in Winnipeg.

ICINGS: Mason Ward, Owen Harris, Trae Johnson and Nate Danielson did not suit up for the Wheat Kings Wednesday, while the Hitmen were without the services of Blake Heward, Keegan Slaney, Billal Noori, Mason Finley and Zac Funk. … Ridly Greig and Chad Nychuk both saw their 10- and five-game point streaks snapped against Calgary … During the pre-game warmup, Jake Chiasson won a rock-paper-scissors contest and earned a bag of Skittles from a member of the provincial winning Brandon U11 Knights. The youngster didn’t go away empty handed, however, as he received a puck from the Edmonton Oilers draft pick.

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