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Wheat Kings wrangle Hitmen at the Saddledome

Two teams that have struggled after dealing away cornerstone defencemen at the trade deadline clashed Sunday evening at the Scotiabank Saddledome in a thrilling contest.

The Calgary Hitmen traded Jake Bean to the Tri-City Americans and the Brandon Wheat Kings shipped Bean’s World Junior Championship teammate Kale Clague to the Moose Jaw Warriors.

Despite the Wheat Kings’ struggles, they still sit comfortably in a playoff position. Seeing some playoff doors around them get closed, the Hitmen went all in with four minutes remaining to fight and claw for valuable points, but came up short in the end, falling 6-3.

Hitmen Head Coach Dallas Ferguson pulled backup netminder Matthew Armitage with just over four minutes remaining, trailing 4-2.

With the extra attacker on the ice, defencemen Vladislav Yeryomenko drove around the net a dished a back hand pass out to one of the hottest Hitmen, Jake Kryski, who circled a couple defenders and fired home his 14th of the season with 1:58 remaining in regulation.

“You never know what can happen, there was certainly enough time remaining. We took a timeout with three minutes to go knowing that there was a lot of hockey left. We had a couple good looks, it just didn’t go in at that point,” said Ferguson.

For Yeryomenko, it was only his ninth point in 21 games since seeing his defensive partner Bean get sent out of town. In 20 games prior with Bean, Yeryomenko tallied 26 points in 30 games.

Riding the late-game momentum, Conner Chaulk had Wheat Kings’ goalie Logan Thompson down and out, but couldn’t elevate it over his left pad. Shortly thereafter, the leading Hitmen scorer Jakob Stukel rang one off the iron.

“We’re never going to give up in that room. We have guys in that dressing room that have the fight and we almost tied it up,” said Stukel. “We had a couple good looks, we were throwing pucks at the net and guys were hungry around the net which was key. It’s too bad we couldn’t tie it up.”

Ty Lewis and Ben McCartney picked up a couple goals the easy way with the net empty to finish off the Hitmen once and for all.

The win eliminated the Hitmen from any possibilities of going on a run for the top wildcard seed, as the Wheat Kings now sit 26 points up on the Hitmen with 12 games remaining.

For the Manitoba club, tonight’s win duplicated an effort from last night in Medicine Hat that saw them buck a 15-game losing streak on the road. Since the trade deadline, the Wheat Kings have bottomed out the Western Hockey League with a 6-12-2-1 record. The Hitmen weren’t too much better, as they now sit 7-12-0-1.

“We’ve been trying to get on the right track. When you lose that much, you develop some bad habits. The last few games we have gotten back to some of those good habits. Last night carried over to today and we found ways to win tight games,” said Wheat Kings Assistant Coach Don MacGillivray.

The Hitmen probably deserved a better fate as they outplayed the Wheat Kings, but had a couple bounces and plays go against them at crucial moments.

Their 18 shots in the first period set a high-water mark for the season, but once again they were stifled by a Calgary-born goaltender playing in front of family and friends. Thompson’s 45 saves ties the third-most in a performance this season. For the Hitmen, it was the most shots registered in a regulation loss this season.

“Logan is athletic and competes hard on pucks. He gave us an opportunity to get us grounded after falling behind early and kept it a one-goal game. That’s what we expect out of him,” said MacGillivray.

The Hitmen were able to solve the 20-year-old playing his final major junior game in his hometown when Conner Chaulk grabbed the puck down low and spun upstream past Baron Thompson into the slot, where he unleashed a scorching wrister past the blocker.

The line of Stukel, Kryski and Riley Stotts recorded eight points in a win Friday night over the Oil Kings and struck again in the second when Stukel slammed home a rebound off a Kryski perimeter shot to tie it at two.

For Stukel, the Vancouver Canucks prospect, it was his 30th of the season. It was the second time the 20-year-old surpassed the 30-goal plateau. He now sits six goals away from 100 in his career, while Kryski is one assist away from 100 in his career.

“It’s definitely a big accomplishment, getting all those point and contributing offensively feels good,” said Stukel.

At the other end of the rink was Armitage, who was making his first start of the season when the Hitmen weren’t involved in a back-to-back or three-game set scenario. In his last outing, Armitage stopped 36 pucks Feb. 3 in Kamloops, when the Hitmen eclipsed the Blazers 6-5 in a shootout.

“Army has been battling hard in practice these past few weeks so we went with him. We are going to need both goaltenders when we go down this next stretch and I thought he battled hard tonight. He made big saves and kept it close. That’s his job regardless of how much he has played or not played,” said Ferguson.

Armitage felt the pain that Nick Schneider has experienced this season and yielded four goals where there wasn’t much he could have done to reverse the team’s fortunes.

In the second, Cole Reinhardt stripped the puck from Dom Schmiemann below the net and raced to wrap one in on Armitage. In attempting to cover the far post, Stotts blew a tire and crashed into the backup goalie, leaving an open cage for the Irricanna native to chip in his 16th of the season.

Closing out the second, Layne Toder got tied up in the neutral zone with Evan Weinger and connected knee-on-knee. Weinger remained down for moment or two, while Daniel Bukac jumped in and wanted a piece of the Elkhorn, Man. product.

With both players in the box with minors, Luke Coleman took a retaliatory slashing penalty on Stelio Mattheos, who was slowing the Hitmen winger down from getting back into the play.

It didn’t take long for the ninth-ranked power play to go to work on the five-on-three advantage, as Schael Higson unloaded a bomb from the point, beating Armitage glove side for his fourth of the year 13 seconds into the power play.

With 60 seconds remaining in the second, Mattheos displayed the puck skills that earned him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft, when he feathered a pass inches in front of Armitage past a kneeling Toder, over to Luka Burzan, who shoved home the one-timer in a tight window for his 11th of the season and fifth since joining the Wheat Kings.

The final one Armitage allowed came short handed, when Dakota Krebs’ pass to Mark Kastelic was fumbled in front of their net with the Colorado Avalanche prospect Ty Lewis, who pounced on the loose puck for his 33rd of the season.

“Army deserved a better result tonight. He battled for us, but that’s the way these things go sometimes,” said Chaulk.

It will be interesting to see how the Hitmen handle their goaltending depth chart in the coming weeks. When they acquired Nick Sanders at the trade deadline, Hitmen General Manager Jeff Chynoweth mentioned that the team would keep three goaltenders around for the next few weeks while Sanders recovers from a high-ankle sprain. Earlier in the week, Sanders said he was about one week away from returning to action. The team hasn’t indicated what they tend to do with their goaltending situation as the season winds down.

With only 12 games remaining, the nooses around the Hitmen playoff hopes are tightening.

“When it comes down to it, we didn’t get the two points we needed. We have to look at Tuesday’s game as a do-or-die and treat games that way going forward,” said the 20-year-old Chaulk.

The Hitmen will host Matteo Gennaro and Beck Malenstyn of the Swift Current Broncos during the annual Telus Be Brave Anti-Bullying Game Tuesday morning. Puck is slated for 11 a.m.