Wheat Kings rally to beat Warriors in shootout

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This article was published 09/04/2022 (1435 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On a night when Nate Danielson couldn’t buy a break, the puck finally went in for him during the shootout as the Brandon Wheat Kings downed the Moose Jaw Warriors 3-2 in Western Hockey League action at Westoba Place on Saturday.

Danielson, who earlier earned an assist on a goal by Nolan Ritchie, had five shots and numerous opportunities but none went in. With both teams having failed to score on their first two shots in the shootout, Danielson fired the puck past the glove of Moose Jaw goalie Carl Tetachuk to put his team up, and Brandon goalie Ethan Kruger shut the door on Warriors star Ryder Korczak to seal the victory.

“Obviously I had a lot of chances tonight and would have liked to bury a couple but getting that one in the shootout was the biggest one,” Danielson said. 

Brandon (35-25-3-2, 75 points, three games remaining) received its other goal from Vincent Iorio, with Eric Alarie also replying for fifth-place Moose Jaw (36-23-3-3, 78 points, three games remaining) in front of a crowd of 3,317. The win moved Brandon within three points of Moose Jaw and the fourth-place Saskatoon Blades (37-26-3-1, 78 points, one game remaining).

In a pair of high-stakes games, Moose Jaw returns on Tuesday for Brandon’s home finale, and the Wheat Kings travel to Saskatoon to meet the Blades on Friday, before finishing the regular season a night later against the Raiders in Prince Albert. 

Danielson said Saturday’s important victory was that much sweeter because the Warriors throttled the Wheat Kings in their last visit, a 7-1 thrashing on March 15.

“It was really nice to get that win,” Danielson said. “I think everyone had it in the back of their minds what happened last time they were here. I think we all wanted to get the win tonight and we did that.”

After Brandon put the first three shots of the game on net and showed a lot of early jump, Moose Jaw had the next nine and it paid off.

The Warriors took the lead three minutes 53 seconds into the first period on a highlight reel goal when Korczak stickhandled around two Brandon defenders and sent a pass across the front of the net to the back door, where Alarie tapped the puck past a helpless Kruger. 

Brandon’s best early chances actually came soon after when they were killing a penalty, with a two-on-one defused by a shot block by Warriors defenceman Cole Jordan of Brandon. Soon after, a Danielson partial breakaway was foiled when the puck trickled off his stick after a Moose Jaw defender reached in from behind, leaving fans howling for a hooking penalty.

The visitors increased the lead 4:14 into the middle frame when Korzcak took a shot and then pounced on the rebound, but Brandon responded two minutes later off the rush on the power play when Danielson threaded a pass across the ice to Ritchie, who had a tap-in for his 32nd goal of the season.

“It started in our own end,” Ritchie said. “Chuck (Chad Nychuk) dropped it back to us and we built as much speed as we could. Danny made a nice play at the blue-line getting around the D-man and I just had to go to the net with my stick on the ice and he found it.”

Brandon tied it up less than three minutes later when Iorio swatted the puck out of the air on a rebound of a shot by Ben Thornton. The Wheat Kings had an extra attacker on the ice at the time due to a delayed penalty call.

“Chuck dropped it to me and I wheeled behind the net,” said Iorio, prior to Brandon carrying the puck down the ice. “I saw Jumbo (Thornton) and was waiting for a give-and-go but he was able to beat the guy wide and threw it on net. I just got lucky and batted it in.”

Brandon took three penalties in rapid succession late in the second period and early in the third period, but managed to limit Moose Jaw’s scoring chances and emerged unscathed.

In overtime, the Wheat Kings had the best chances as they outshot the Warriors 4-1. 

Zakhar Polshakov’s one-timer was turned aside by Tetachuk’s pad, and the Moose Jaw netminder also denied Jake Chiasson on a breakaway. At the other end, Kruger came across with his pad to make his best save of the evening on a two-on-one.

In the first two rounds of the shootout, Brandon’s Chiasson and Brett Hyland and Moose Jaw’s Denton Mateychuk and Jagger Firkus were all stopped, putting the puck on Danielson’s stick as the first shooter of the third round.

The 17-year-old forward wasn’t sure what he was going to do as he skated in.

“I was seeing what he was giving me and made a little move on him when I got around the hashmarks,” Danielson said. “I saw his glove drop and then I put it top glove.”

When Kruger denied Korczak, it gave the hosts their second victory over the Warriors in six outings this season.

Brandon head coach Don MacGillivray certainly liked his team’s effort but suggested both clubs played well.

“I thought it was a real good hockey game,” MacGillivray said. “Both teams played hard, both teams did a lot of good things. I liked the fact that we were down 2-0 in the game and fought our way back. We had some penalties to kill off, we got a goal on the power play, we got good goaltending. I just thought we had a good effort up and down the lineup tonight.

“We’re finding ways to win hockey games and that’s important at this time of the year.”

The win was Brandon’s fifth in a row, and seventh in their last eight games since they ended a season-high six-game losing streak.

“It sucks to lose that many games and have that stuff in the room,” Ritchie said. “Obviously we wanted to get it out and winning five in a row is huge. Our mindset is really good in the room right now and we just have to keep building off it.”

Kruger made 30 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Tetachuk stopping 29 shots for the Warriors. Brandon went 1-for-3 on the power play, with Moose Jaw unsuccessful in five chances.

Moose Jaw head coach Mark O’Leary said his team certainly had its chances to earn a better outcome.

“I thought we left some opportunities on the table,” O’Leary said. “The big letdown tonight was our power play. When you have that many chances you have to get one there. But on the other side of it, I thought we had a pretty good game. It was two teams with a lot to play for right now and it was a hard-fought game and took a shootout to get a winner.”

Perhaps most impressively for Brandon, their winning streak has been built as they continue to skate without injured forwards Ridly Greig and Marcus Kallionkieli. Iorio said his club is simply doing what it takes to win.

“Obviously we’re still missing a couple of key guys but we’ve been playing really well,” Iorio said. “The systems have been working. It’s really good to be on a five-game heater going into the playoffs. Hopefully in these next three games we can just keep doing our thing. 

“We’re on a roll now so we have to stick to it.”

ICINGS: Brandon’s healthy scratches were Owen Harris, Charlie Elick, Jesiah Bennett and Hayden Chaloner … Moose Jaw played without top defenceman Daemon Hunt of Brandon, who is nursing a lower-body injury … Chiasson led the Wheat Kings with six shots on net … The game took two hours, 24 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 33-29 … Saskatoon goaltender Nolan Maier set a new WHL record with his 121st career regular season victory on Friday with a 2-0 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders, breaking the previous mark shared by Corey Hirsch of the Kamloops Blazers and Tyson Sexsmith of the Vancouver Giants. Maier, who was drafted by the Blades and spent his entire five-year WHL career there, holds a career record of 121-72-12-6 in 215 regular season games. 

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