November 11 of every year is a day to remember. It’s a day where we remember all those who have fallen while serving our country and to honour those that continue to serve this country today.
For a few teams across the Western Hockey League, November 11, known as Remembrance Day was also a day for hockey.
The Tri-City Americans picked up a solid road victory against the Central Division leading Edmonton Oil Kings. Another game is an all B.C. Division tilt as the Kelowna Rockets play the Kamloops Blazers.
1751 kilometres from the Sandman Centre where the Blazers are hosting the Rockets is where you would have found the league’s third and only other game of the day. It was a meeting that renewed the “Battle of Manitoba”, a battle that saw the two Manitoba teams battling for two points in a highly competitive East Division.
Fresh off a five-goal performance against the Regina Pats, the Winnipeg ICE hit the road for a trip to the Wheat City to challenge the Brandon Wheat Kings, who are coming off two straight losses against Prince Albert and Saskatoon, respectively.
In front of 4412 fans inside of Westoba Place, the hometown Wheat Kings gave their fans a ton to cheer about and they gave themselves two points while doing so.
A five-goal second period lifted the Wheat Kings to a 7-2 win against their new provincial rival.
The biggest story of the game was Brandon’s success while on the man advantage. The club went 3-for-7. Winnipeg’s inability to score while on the power play also cost them, as they went 0-for-7.
The goalie battle pegged Jiri Patera against Jesse Makaj and both were perfect through 20. Patera made four saves while the busier Makaj made 10.
The second period saw Brandon go to town in their hometown.
Just 58 seconds into the period, Luka Burzan set up Cole Reinhardt who scored his eighth goal of the campaign.
Isaac Johnson had an all-star type of game for Winnipeg against Regina on Saturday and that translated to some more offence on Monday. He beat Patera for his seventh of the season just more than four minutes later to tie the game up. Michal Teply and Chase Hartje picked up the assists.
Tied at one, the Wheat Kings blew the game wide open. At the 10:09 mark, Ty Thorpe scored his second goal of the season with Chad Nychuk and Duncan Pierce getting the assists.
Just three minutes later, Braden Schneider made it 3-1 Brandon with Reinhardt and Connor Gutenberg earning the assists.
It was then time for Brandon to go to work on the power play. At the 15:02 mark, Ridly Greig scored his fourth of the season. Schneider and Ben McCartney picked up the assists on the goal that made it 4-1.
The onslaught would continue before the period was over. Jonny Hooker scored his fourth of the season at the 16:32 mark to make it 5-1 Brandon after 40.
6:37 into the third, Michael Milne gave the Winnipeg bench something to cheer about, however, that was it for them.
Up 5-2 now, the Wheat Kings made it 6-2 with a goal from Connor Gutenberg at the 9:37 mark. With 3:09 left, Chad Nychuk would score his second of the season to make it 7-2 and that ended up being the final.
Jiri Patera ended up making 23 saves on 25 shots. Makaj, meanwhile, was 13-for-17 before he was pulled. Dean McNabb would come in and he made eight saves on 11 shots.
Brandon is now 9-12 and they’re one point behind Moose Jaw for the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. Winnipeg, meanwhile, remains in third in the East with a 10-8-1 record.
Wheat Tips:
- Ty Thorpe scored just one goal of all last year. With his marker against Winnipeg, he now has two for the season, a new WHL high for him. He also went 10-for-13 on face offs.
- Besides getting out shot in the first period, Winnipeg out shot Brandon, 21-18 in the final two frames.
- Thanks to their 3-for-7 performance on the power play, Brandon is now eighth in the league. They’re 20-for-93. That has them at 21.5%.
- Ironically enough, Winnipeg’s 0-for-7 performance dropped them to 21.4% which is just behind Brandon.
- Brandon and Winnipeg next play in a home-and-home later this month. Brandon hosts Winnipeg on November 29 and Winnipeg plays host on November 30.
