Down 2-0, the Brandon Wheat Kings didn’t falter or panic.
The Wheat Kings trailed 2-0 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal to the Medicine Hat Tigers and battled back to tie it 2-2 entering Game 5 Friday night at the Canalta Centre.
In the pivotal Game 5, the Tigers led 2-0, before the Wheat Kings stormed back and became the first road team this series to pick up a victory with the 5-2 decision.
Trailing 2-0 early in the second, it was Schael Higson who ignited the Wheat Kings.
During the regular season, Higson was the Wheat King’s leading producer of offence from the back end with 28 points in 71 games.
Higson’s point shot got blocked in the slot and was redirected into the corner, where Stelio Matthoes scooped up the loose puck.
The Wheat Kings were on the power play as Cole Clayton was serving the back end of a double minor for slew-footing, his first of two on the evening.
Using the open space, Mattheos spun quickly and stormed the crease, as the puck was dislodged from his stick and found the wide-open Lewis at the other side of the net for his fourth goal of the series at the 5:52 mark.
With less than three minutes in the second stanza, Higson’s point shot made it through a crowd and onto the net this time, only to be beautifully tipped by Luka Burzan by the right post to tie the game at two.
The Tigers were staked to the 2-0 lead with several NHL scouts in the stands, when the 2000-born Ryan Chyzowski helped boost his draft profile. Chyzowski burst through the neutral zone and split the gap between Chase Hartje and James Shearer, before ripping one high off the post and in past Jordan Hollett.
Hollett was starting his fourth game of the series, after the 20-year-old Michael Bullion got the nod in Game 4.
Rumors were swirling before puck drop of a possibility of seeing Mason Shaw return to the lineup for the first time this season, but he was once again scratched from the lineup. Tigers Head Coach Shaun Clouston stated before the series that there was a possibility of Shaw returning to the lineup at some point, but wouldn’t promise anything.
With Elijah Brown also out of the lineup for the Tigers, it was all hands on deck. Connor Gutenberg won the draw for Brandon, but Tyler Preziuso jumped the gun from the left wing spot and intercepted the puck on its way back to the defensive pairing.
Preziuso gathered the puck in the neutral zone. Entering the Wheat Kings’ zone, he looked to set up Ryan Jevne in the slot, but the puck went through Higson’s legs and made it’s way to Chyzowski, who roofed it from in tight for his second of the game and put the Tigers temporarily up 2-0.
Game 5 was up for grabs entering the third period knotted at two, but the Wheat Kings carried the momentum after outshooting the home team 15-6 in a dominant second period.
With the ice still wet 19 seconds into the third, Linden McCorrister battled to get a puck out of the Wheat Kings’ zone. Evan Weinger gathered the puck in the neutral zone and was off on a rush. Weinger feathered a pass past Dalton Gally and Clayton over to Gutenberg, who elevated the puck over the outstretched right leg of Hollett.
With David Quenneville in the box for cross checking, McCorrister looked to extend the Brandon lead, but was twice denied by Hollett for two of his 26 saves.
McCorrister stuck with the program and was rewarded later on the shift when Higson’s point shot was stopped with the right pad of Hollett, but McCorrister put in the extra effort and dove to poke the puck in.
There was no quit in the Tigers, though.
After the mid-way mark of the third, the Tigers desperation kicked in and began to turn up the heat on 18-year-old Dyaln Myskiw, who was starting his second-straight game and appearing in his fifth game of the series for the injured Logan Thompson.
Myskiw turned in 24 saves to win his third-straight decision.
Mark Rassell, who popped in five goals in the first three games of the series for the Tigers, was threatening in the third and whacking away at the puck by the goal crease. Myskiw thought he had the puck and lay on his back to cover, but the puck came free. Sensing the danger, Mattheos tried to chip it out but sailed the puck clear over the glass.
The Tigers cranked out four shots on the ensuing power play, but were shutdown time and time again by the shoulder and blocker of Myskiw.
Even by pulling Hollett with 1:32 to go, the Tigers couldn’t muster up enough offence to force overtime.
Mattheos, who has been quiet on the score sheet this series, benefited from the empty net and registered his second goal of the series to but the nail in the Game 5 coffin.
The series now shifts back to Dauphin for Game 6 with the Wheat Kings in the driver seat up 3-2. Puck drop goes April 1 (7 p.m. CDT) at the Credit Union Place in Dauphin.
