Sunday night’s lone game at the Subway WHL Hub was a clash of East Division titans.
The contest pitted the East division’s top two teams. The first place Saskatoon Blades (9-2-1-0) “hosted” the second-place Brandon Wheat Kings (9-2-1-0).
In their previous match-up, the Blades came out on top in a 6-4 victory on March 22nd. Kyle Crnkovic was a key player for the Blades as he scored and added an assist in garnering first star honors. Since the loss, the Wheat Kings had won five straight contests.
In tonight’s game, the Blades started Koen MacInnes in goal and the Wheat Kings went with Ethan Kruger.
The Blades welcomed back Rhett Rhinehart to their lineup. Chase Wouters served game three of his three-game suspension for hitting Prince Albert’s Ozzy Wiesblatt.
The game officially marked the “halfway” mark of the season as all seven teams had played 12 games.
The stealthy Wheat Kings scored three unanswered goals on their way to a 3-1 win over the Blades. Three different Wheat Kings notched tallies as they tied the season series and moved into a tie for first place with those same Blades.
Here is how things went.
The Wheat Kings took a penalty 4:23 into the clash as Riley Ginnell was sent to the box for a check to the head. The Blades had chances, but the Wheat Kings stood their ground.
Fresh off killing their first minor they went back on the kill as Brett Hyland took a charging minor at 7:42.
The Blades took advantage as former Wheat King Caiden Daley converts. Daley tapped in a nice pass from Crnkovic at 8:20 to give the Blades the 1-0 lead.
Brandon thought they had tied it up. They had a player pinned down in the crease by a Blade defenseman and MacInnes was not able to make a play. The goal did not count and remained 1-0 Blades.
It was the Wheat Kings turn to go to on the powerplay. Alex Morozoff took a holding minor with less than five minutes left in the first period. Brandon was not able to get anything going and the penalty was killed.
In a fast-paced opening twenty minutes, both teams showed why they are the top two in the Hub. With a 1-0 lead, the Blades were the only ones to dent the armor. Saskatoon also had the advantage on the shot clock with a 12-8 count.
The battle continued into the second period and the play started to sway in the Wheat Kings’ favor.
Lynden McCallum got the Wheat Kings on even terms. His beautiful bar down goal at 9:08 tied the game at 1-1.
Just over a minute later, Rylen Roersma took a tripping penalty for Brandon at 10:19. That gave Saskatoon their third powerplay. Brandon limited Saskatoon’s chances and was successful on the kill.
Brandon’s Neithan Salame took a roughing minor at 14:47 giving the Blades yet another powerplay. Much like the previous penalty, Brandon killed it.
With four seconds left in the second, Brandon Lisowsky took a minor for tripping sending the Wheat Kings to their second man advantage of the game which carried 1:57 over to the third period.
Brandon took over the shot clock in the second by a 13-6 margin.
Twenty minutes remained to decide this clash.
The Blades were successful in killing the carried-over penalty.
Brandon kept coming and Ben McCartney finished off a brilliant pass from Ridly Greig. McCartney’s seventh made it 2-1 Brandon at 3:20 of the final period.
With the Wheat Kings gaining momentum, Colton Dach took a holding penalty at 6:04. The powerplay was short-lived when Nolan Ritchie took an interference penalty. He stepped into a Blade forward. His penalty at 7:07 nullified the final minute of the Wheat King powerplay. The Blades failed to score on their minute of powerplay time.
The Blades took another minor, this time it was Wyatt McLeod with a tripping minor at 9:57 of the third. They successfully killed it off.
More penalty trouble for the Blades at 12:42. Morozoff took a delay of game minor. The Blades penalty kill never gave up and killed the third penalty of the period.
With the goaltender pulled the Blades got a few chances but could not capitalize. Saskatoon had control of the puck and Wyatt McLeod was taken down. Wheat Kings Reid Perepeluk ended up with the puck took it in alone and scored into an empty net with 8.8 seconds left.
The Blades were not happy and argued for a call but to no avail. The Wheat Kings were on the winning end of a 3-1 score.
Brandon outshot the Blades 10-5 in the third period and 31-23 overall.
Just notes: McCartney (game-winner), MacInnes (28 saves) and Kruger (22 saves) were the three stars of the game. Brandon ended 0-for-5 on the powerplay while Saskatoon went 1-for-4. The Blades owned the dot winning 40-of-65 faceoffs for a 61.5% efficiency rate.
