On Monday night, the Brandon Wheat Kings “hosted” the Saskatoon Blades in the Regina “Hubble.” It is the teams’ first meeting of the 24-game season for the teams, and the first time they played since Valentine’s Day 2020. The Wheat Kings won that matchup 4-2 in Brandon.
In the battle of first and fourth place teams (by two points) it was expected to be a battle. Both teams were hot coming in with two-game winning streaks.
Something had to give.
Both clubs came out hard. Everyone was hitting everything.
When it came time to play, the Blades were the better club on the night win a 6-4 win.
Even though the teams have not played each other in over a year, at times the game felt like the fifth game of a playoff series. Other times it was more like a preseason contest where players were just blowing off steam. Overall it was a very entertaining contest.
Now on to the game.
First period
The Blades came out swinging scoring just 3:45 into the game. Wyatt McLeod scored his first goal as a Blade as he finished off a rush firing a one-time past Ethan Kruger. Tristen Robins set-up the goal with a nice feed cross-ice to give the Blades a 1-0 lead.
Brandon took a minor penalty less than a minute later and the Blades capitalized. Blake Stevenson was johnny on the spot wiring a rebound past the prone Wheat King netminder. Caiden Daley’s shot was stopped and Stevenson found the rebound to make the game 2-0 for the Blades.
With the teams playing four-on-four, Jake Chiasson feathered a pass up through the neutral zone. Ben McCartney stayed onside and corral the puck. McCartney then went in alone on Koen MacInnes and put a beautiful backhand past him to make the score 2-1.
With 5:05 left in the first period, Colton Dach gave the Blades a 3-1 lead. He grabbed the puck in front of the Wheat King net, spun around, and whipped a shot past Kruger for his second of the season.
Colton Dach scores on Ethan Kruger (Keith Hershmiller/WHL)Less than two minutes later, Caiden Daley buried a loose puck past a down and out Kruger to give the Blades a 4-1 lead heading into the break.
The Blades took an 11-9 shot advantage into the first intermission.
Second period
The game became more and more physical as time ticked away.
It wasn’t until the midway point of the second period when the Wheat Kings scored. Lynden McCallum picked up the puck in a mad scramble and deposited it into the Blade net to make it 4-2.
Less than two minutes later the Blades would connect to make it 5-2. Tristen Robins would win a battle along the wall and sent the puck to Kyle Crnkovic. He wired a shot from the left dot beating the Wheat King netminder for his 100th career WHL point.
If you would have turned away you would have missed some action.
Just over a minute after the 5-2 goal, the Wheat Kings pulled back to within a pair. Riley Ginnell scooped up the puck from down low and feed a pass to McCallum who then scored his second of the period.
The Blades took a 5-3 lead into the final frame.
Third period
The physical play continued to get more and more intense.
Rough stuff and physical play would be prevalent through the game, but it boiled over a few times in the third period.
At 7:49 of the period, the Blades Alex Morozoff and Wheat Kings Jaxon Dube squared off in some old-fashioned fisticuffs. If you like that sort of thing, it was a doozy of a scrap.
Back to the action.
At the 14:19 mark, Nolan Ritchie broke down the right side (on his off-wing) and sniped his fourth of the season past MacInnes’ blocker. That goal made the score 5-4.
Crnkovic took a penalty with 2:36 left in regulation giving the Wheat Kings a powerplay late. The Wheat Kings pulled Kruger but could not capitalize with the extra attacker.
Crnkovic finished serving his penalty and when he got out of the box he got back into the play. He sealed the Blade victory when he stole the puck from a Wheat King and scored into the empty net with nine seconds left.
The final score: Blades 6 Wheat Kings 4.
Extra bits
The Schneider brothers faced off against each other for the first time. Marek for the Blades and Braden for the Wheat Kings.
Crnkovic (2G, 1A) was named the first star. Wheat Kings McCallum (2G, A) was named the second star. Blades Daley (1G, 1A) was named the third star.
Up next for the Wheat Kings, are the Moose Jaw Warriors on Wednesday. The Blades’ next action is also on Wednesday when they face the Swift Current Broncos.
