Wheaties defeat Broncos 7-4
The injury-riddled and short-staffed Brandon Wheat Kings gutted out a big road win on Tuesday, beating the Swift Current Broncos 7-4 in Western Hockey League action at InnovationPlex.
Sixth-place Brandon (26-16-4-3) received two goals each from Dominik Petr and Marcus Nguyen, and singles from Nick Johnson, Gio Pantelas and Nolan Flamand, with Otto Hanson, Carlin Dezainde, Hunter Mayo and Grayson Burzynski replying for eighth-place Swift Current (27-210-1-1) in front of a crowd of 2,051.
Brandon is currently without defencemen Luke Shipley (upper body, week-to-week) and Merrek Arpin (upper body, week-to-week) plus forwards Roger McQueen (upper body, week-to-week) Jaxon Jacobson (lower body, week-to-week), Joby Baumuller (upper body, day to day) and Easton Odut (upper body, indefinite).
Feb. 11, 2025
With just 21 skaters on the roster and five out, that left the team with 15 skaters — 10 forwards and five defencemen — three shy of the 18 they’re allowed.
“You could probably say the odds were stacked up against up,” Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Marty Murray said. “I’m proud of the effort tonight. I thought the guys really persevered with 15 skaters, 10 forwards and five D. We needed everybody and everybody contributed. It wasn’t an easy day. We decided to come in on the day of. I thought it was a real gritty effort by our entire group.”
Brandon opened the scoring one minutes 20 seconds into the opening frame when Johnson intercepted a pass near the Swift Current blue-line, skated in and snapped a shot past Broncos goalie Reid Dyck on the first shot of the game.
Brandon’s top line struck again seven minutes later when a rebound off a Johnson shot went behind the net to Marcus Flamand and he sent the puck out front to Nguyen for a quick shot past Dyck.
In the second period, Matteo Michels got the puck out to the rookie defenceman Pantelas who one-timed a shot past Dyck. The veteran goalie, who allowed three goals on 14 shots, was then replaced by Joey Rocha.
Just over two minutes later, the Broncos finally beat Wheat Kings goalie Ethan Eskit, when Hanson knocked a bouncing puck into the net from the slot for his first WHL goal.
But just 51 seconds later, Petr was sent in all alone by Brady Turko and beat Rocha inside the far post to restore the three-goal lead.
Three minutes after that, at the 8:34 mark, Swift Current took just 11 seconds on their first power play to respond when Dezainde struck from the slot to make it 4-2.
Brandon had a power play carry over into the third period, and it took 16 seconds for Petr to fire a shot off the rush over Rocha’s shoulder into the top corner on the short side.
Swift Current went to a second power play, however, and it took only seven seconds on a four-on-three power play for Mayo to come off the boards and fire a shot past Eskit, making it 5-3 with 11:38 remaining.
Brandon had done a good job of restricting Swift Current’s chances for the most part, but the game opened up as the Broncos pressed and Eskit was busier.
They made it a one-goal lead with 4:40 left when Burzynski tucked the puck around Eskit’s leg to make it 5-4.
Brandon went to their sixth power play with 3:40 remaining, and Rocha reached out with his pad to deny Johnson, but Flamand scored after the draw with 3:21 left. Quinn Mantei earned his 100th WHL point with an assist.
“Your veteran players have to come through in situations like this,” Murray said. “Flamand’s line did a real good job and were all over the scoresheet. Those power plays in the third period sealed the game for us. Those were game changers for us.”
The hosts pulled Rocha for the extra attacker with 2:43 left and Nguyen scored his second into the empty net with 73 seconds remaining to seal the victory.
Eskit made 20 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Dyck and Rocha combining to stop 25 shots for the Broncos.
Brandon went 2-for-6 on the power play, with Swift Current scoring twice in three chances.
“I thought overall we played a real sound game,” Murray said. “To only give up 24 shots on the road against a pretty good offensive team is something we should be happy with. We created a lot and had a lot of chances to score. Overall, it was pretty solid game. We weren’t thrilled about giving up four but they had a couple of power-play goals.”
ICINGS: Mantei, Nguyen and Flamand each had two assists … Pantelas had a plus-minus of +4 in the game … Johnson led the Wheat Kings with seven shots on net … The game took a plodding two hours, 34 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Swift Current won 41-35 … In the second period, Brandon forward Caleb Hadland levelled William Morin with a heavy but clean check, and the Swedish winger had to be helped off the ice but later returned. Hadland was immediately jumped and Brandon received a power play … Brandon has 19 games remaining, with a home-and-home this weekend against the Moose Jaw Warriors, starting at Moose Jaw Events Centre on Friday and Westoba Place on Saturday.
» Twitter: @PerryBergson
TUESDAY
Wheat Kings 7, Broncos 4
First Period
1. Brandon, Johnson 10 (unassisted) 1:20.
2. Brandon, Nguyen 26 (Flamand, Johnson) 8:42
Penalties — Mayo RD (roughing) 18:20.
Second Period
3. Brandon, Pantelas 3 (Michels, Boehm) 2:37.
4. Swift Current, Hanson 1 (Kettles, Dale) 5:02.
5. Brandon, Petr 10 (Turko, Belusko) 5:53.
6. Swift Current, Dezainde 25 (Caswell, Mayo) 8:34 (pp).
Penalties — Hadland Bdn (kneeing) 8:23, Gould SC (checking from behind) 8:53, Burzynski SC (roughing) 12:18, Dezainde SC (high sticking) 18:58.
Third Period
7. Brandon, Petr 11 (Flamand, Nguyen) 0:16 (pp)
8. Swift Current, Mayo 14 (Gould) 8:22 (pp).
9. Swift Current, Burzynski 8 (Dale, McFaul) 15:20.
10. Brandon, Flamand 18 (Mantei, Nguyen) 16:39 (pp).
11. Brandon, Nguyen 27 (Mantei) 18:48 (en).
Penalties — Burzynski SC (tripping) 2:35, Flamand Bdn (embellishment) 6:27, Dezainde SC (hooking) 6:27, Pantelas Bdn (tripping) 8:15, Burzynski SC (interference) 16:20, Klippenstein Bdn (high sticking) 19:13.
Shots on goal by
Brandon 9 14 9 — 32
Swift Current 9 5 10 — 24
Goal (shots-saves) — Swift Current: Dyck (14-11) (L, 17-18-1-0) , Rocha (4:23, 2nd period) (17-14); Brandon: Eskit (24-20) (W, 10-3-1-3).
Power plays (goals-chances) — Brandon: 2-6; Swift Current: 2-3.
Referees — Troy Murray, Ty Skene.
Linesmen — Andrew Sawatsky, n/a.
Attendance — 2,051 in Swift Current.
