Rebels rebound to beat Wheat Kings

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This article was published 05/11/2021 (1519 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If the Western Hockey League awarded points for bad luck, the Brandon Wheat Kings may have already clinched the regular season title.

The injury-riddled Wheat Kings lost starting goalie Ethan Kruger to an injury from goaltender interference for the second time this season as they fell 5-3 to the Red Deer Rebels in Western Hockey League action at Westoba Place on Friday.

Jhett Larson, Arshdeep Bains, Kai Uchacz, Carter Anderson and Jayden Grubbe scored for Red Deer (9-5-1-0), with Rylen Roersma sniping twice and Marcus Kallionkieli adding his first of the season for Brandon (5-8-0-0) in front of a crowd of 2,577.

Brandon head coach Don MacGillivray said he wasn’t going to make any excuses for his injury-riddled roster.

“We got an effort tonight but we made some mistakes,” MacGillivray said. “Certainly the second period wasn’t our best, and against a good team, they’re going to make you pay, and that’s what they did.”

Brandon went to an early man advantage in the game, but the result foreshadowed what lay ahead for them. Red Deer controlled the puck for most of the first 90 seconds and had some glorious chances while Brandon struggled just to set up. 

In fact, the Rebels built a quick 9-1 advantage on the shot clock, with Brandon’s overage Kruger holding his club in the game.

The Wheat Kings’ power play had more success later in the first period. They were able to set up shop in the Red Deer zone, moved the puck around and Roersma deposited a rebound off the pad of former teammate Connor Ungar.

“I was standing for a screen and (Nolan Ritchie) took a shot for the high tip,” Roersma said. “I just turned into it and it was right there for me. I made sure to bear down and put it in the net.”

Disaster struck again for Brandon one minute and 41 seconds into the second period.

Kruger left the game with assistance from athletic therapist Zach Hartwick and equipment manager Scott Hlady when Bains fell on him after the Red Deer forward went to the net. Kruger, who stopped all 17 shots he faced and looked sharp, was also injured on Oct. 9 in a game against the Saskatoon Blades and missed three weeks.

Any momentum and confidence Brandon built with the first period lead seemed to leave with Kruger and their mistakes and missed connections began to prove costly.

The Rebels evened the game seven minutes into the second period when Larson shovelled a rebound off the end boards past rookie netminder Carson Bjarnason. With the goal, the 61st surrendered by Brandon in the 2021-22 campaign, it equalled the total it gave up in the entire abbreviated 24-game season in the Regina hub.

With the momentum firmly in their favour despite another Brandon man advantage, Bains gave the Rebels their first lead 13:26 into the second period when he deflected a shot by Larson through the legs of Bjarnason.

Red Deer essentially put the game away 18 seconds into the third period when they capitalized on a double minor for slew footing taken by Ritchie late in the second period. Uchacz got the puck in the slot and sent a wicked shot over Bjarnason’s shoulder to give the visitors a 3-1 lead, which seemed insurmountable based on the 32-12 lead in shots held by the Rebels at the time.

The young goaltender was helpless on the next goal as well as Uchacz sent a pass out front to Anderson, who blasted a one-timer past him 8:03 into the period.

Offensively, Brandon managed just five shots on net in the third period and spent long stretches pinned on their own side of centre ice.

Brandon finally showed signs of life in the late stages of the third period. Kallionkieli converted a net-front pass from Ritchie to make it 4-2 with six minutes remaining, and with the goalie pulled, Roersma scored his second goal when he backhanded a shot over Ungar’s shoulder with two minutes left.

Any thoughts of a comeback were extinguished when Grubbe scored into an empty net with 48.4 seconds remaining in regulation.

“They’re a big physical team,” Roersma said of Red Deer. “They do everything right. They get pucks deep, they get on the forecheck, they’re good in their D-zone, they don’t make any fancy plays on the blue-lines, and I think that’s what we kind of need to do to match their play.”

Brandon announced earlier on Friday that overage forward Eric Pearce had been released to get to the league maximum of three 20-year-olds. 

The Wheat Kings also skated without forwards Jake Chiasson (upper-body, indefinite), F Ben Thornton (upper body, week to week), F Ridly Greig (upper body, day-today), Nate Danielson (upper body, day-today) and Jaxon Dubé (upper body, day to day), plus defenceman Vincent Iorio (upper body, day-to-day) as they lost their fifth game in their last six outings. 

“I think we’re going through a tough time right now but every team in every league goes through it and we just have to bear down and figure it out,” Roersma said. “We have a good group of guys here, and I think we’re going to be a really good team. We just have to get through this time.”

For the 12th time in 13 starts this season, they were unable to dress a dozen forwards, and only reached 11 by calling up Evan Groening from the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Virden Oil Capitals for his second WHL appearance.

“We’re in a spot right now and no doubt about it, it’s frustrating not being able to put together a win,” MacGillivray said. “There were some really good things that happened in the game today and some things I liked.”

Red Deer outshot Brandon 45-17, with Bjarnason making 23 saves after Kruger’s departure.

One bright spot for the hosts was the play of the newly acquired Landon Roberts, who was a physical presence from the drop of the puck in his Brandon debut. 

“I thought he was exactly what we expected,” MacGillivray said. “I thought he came in and played with a lot of energy, especially in the first period, and he’s still learning how we want to play. I thought he injected some life into our team and gave us some speed and some size and some ability to get in on the puck and get pucks out.

“He was a good addition.”

Brandon went 1-for-5 on the power play, with Red Deer scoring once in four chances. 

Red Deer head coach Steve Konowalchuk said it was a good effort from his group, which lost fell 4-1 to the Winnipeg Ice on Thursday as they kicked off a six-game East Division road trip. 

“I was happy with our team, from the leadership group to the younger players,” Konowalchuk said. “Everybody came with their minds engaged and physically engaged from the start. Brandon came out and got the first goal but our guys stuck with it and kept battling and had to put up some pretty good looks on net to score on either goaltender. I thought they were both playing good.

“I’m happy with a nice rebound game from our team.”

ICINGS: Kallionkieli and Ritchie led the Wheat Kings with three shots each on net … The game took two hours, 26 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Red Deer won 44-33 … Brandon is back in action today when they travel to Regina to meet the Pats at 8 p.m. They return to Westoba Place for games on Thursday (Lethbridge Hurricanes, 2:30 p.m.) and Friday (Saskatoon Blades, 7 p.m.) … The Rebels pay a visit to Winnipeg on Sunday … In a pair of WHL trades on Friday, the Vancouver Giants acquired 2001-born defenceman Alex Cotton from the Lethbridge Hurricanes for 2005-born defenceman Hunter McInnes and four draft picks in 2022 and 2023. Vancouver also picked up 2002-born defenceman Evan Toth from the Calgary Hitmen for a sixth-round pick in 2021. 

Brandon rookie defenceman Quinn Mantei was one of 20 WHL players named to the Capital City Challenge, a four-team tournament featuring three men’s under-17 teams and Canada’s national women’s team. It will be held from Nov. 26 to Dec. 1.

 

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