Photo Credit - wheatkings.com

Ginnell Scores First, Wheaties Win

The Brandon Wheat Kings longest road trip of the season wasn’t perfect, however, they did end things on a high note.

On a night where a Riley Ginnell scored his first goal of his Western Hockey League career, the Wheat Kings beat the Swift Current Broncos handily, 5-1 on Saturday night.

Brandon finished their trip at 3-4 and they’re now 6-9 on the campaign.

Don MacGillivray shared his thoughts on the QCountry post-game show.

“It’s been a tough trip, with seven games over fourteen days. For us to come out with the effort we did was really positive,” said Assistant Coach Don MacGillivray. “We had tons of energy on Saturday and different guys contributing.”

“When you look at the trip as a whole our record isn’t as good as we wanted, but realistically we were in six of the seven games,” added MacGillivray. “I thought we played well in a lot of our games out here. We’re getting better and you can see the progress being made. When you get rewarded for it, it reinforces that fact.”

Despite getting the two points at the end, things didn’t start well for Brandon. Brecon Wood put Swift Current up just 5:15 into the first. Hendrik De Klerk had the lone assist. From that point on, it was all Brandon.

(Photo credit – Rick Elvin) Luka Burzan has seven points to his name this season in Brandon.

Luka Burzan scored 6:55 in and that was the start of a solid night for the team’s leading scorer. The game tying goal was assisted by Jonny Lambos and Cole Reinhardt.

Tied at one after 20 minutes, Brandon almost immediately got on the board in the second. Just 45 seconds in, Connor Gutenberg gave Brandon their first lead of the game at 2-1. Luka Burzan and Braden Schneider had the assists on the power play and game-winning goal.

Brandon was far from done offensively. Now it was Ginnell’s turn. Riley scored his first goal after Jake Chiasson set him up.

With a 3-1 lead, Brandon was not done. With 5:34 left in the middle frame, Ben McCartney wired home his sixth of the young season as Brandon took a three goal lead.

Just 1:14 into the third, Luka Burzan scored his second of the game and seventh of the season as Brandon capped off the trip with a more or so dominating four goal victory.

Ethan Kruger made his eighth straight start and made 22 saves in the win.

Wheat Tips:

  • 11 Brandon skaters were + on the night.
  • Isaac Poulter was forced to make 38 saves for Swift Current.