The Brandon Wheat Kings put up 40 shots on Saturday night against the Edmonton Oil Kings, but those in attendance at Westoba Place witnessed another special goaltending performance.
One night after Brandon’s Jiri Patera stole the show with a 40-save shutout, Todd Scott was fantastic for Edmonton, making 39 saves.
In fact, he was less than two minutes away from getting Edmonton’s second straight shutout.
“I thought it was a good hockey game and both teams really worked hard,” said assistant coach of the Wheat Kings, Don MacGillivray, to wheatkings.com. “The difference in the game was a couple of times when we didn’t win some puck battles.”
”We had a lot of chances, but I feel we tried making too many plays in the second half instead of just getting shots,” continues MacGillivray. “It was a good step for our hockey club.”
Both Scott of Edmonton and Ethan Kruger of Brandon went toe-to-toe in the crease. Each goalie made some big saves as it took more than 30 minutes to find the game’s first goal.
At the 14:43 mark in the second, David Kope capitalized on the man advantage for Edmonton as they took a 1-0 lead into the third. Ethan McIndoe had the lone assist.
Holding that 1-0 lead, Scott Atkinson gave Edmonton some breathing room with his fourth of the season at the 7:28 mark.
Vladimir Alistrov and Ethan Cap had the two assists on the goal that made it 2-0.
Brandon continued to push hard, and they got on the board late. On the power play, Chad Nychuk scored his first of the season to trim the deficit in half. Lynden McCallum and Cole Reinhardt inked the helpers.
The goal, however, with 1:46 left ended up being the final of the contest. Scott shut the door the rest of the way for Edmonton to secure a weekend sweep through Manitoba. They hammered Winnipeg 7-0 on Friday night.
“We were happy with the effort. We had some moments in the game where we were rusty and that came back to bite us,” said MacGillivray. “Once we get going in the right direction here, we’ll be good.”
Brandon gets nearly no rest. They head to Saskatoon for a mid-afternoon game on Sunday afternoon.
“That’s going to be another tough test,” Don concluded.
Edmonton resumes their trip on Tuesday in Regina.
They’re now 4-1-2 while Brandon is 2-4.
ICINGS:
- On their current road trip, Edmonton has earned five out of a possible six points.
- Brandon went 1-for-7 on the power play, and they’re now 6-for-27 on the season. That still has them in eighth in the league on the man advantage.
- The game also featured Dylan Guenther. He’s the top eligible prospect for the 2020 NHL Draft per Elite Prospects.
- Brandon is just 1-3 on home ice. They’ve given up 10 goals in that time.
