The Calgary Hitmen on Friday had the opportunity to jump back into the third seed of the central division with a victory. Unfortunately for the Hitmen Jiri Patera’s 35 save performance along with Cole Reinhardt’s back to back goals stood in their way. The Calgary power play, despite getting their fair share of opportunities, was dismal. They generated their only two goals short-handed.
Along with the loss the Medicine Hat Tigers stomped the Regina Pats and jumped back into the outright lead for third in the central on Calgary while also carrying a game in hand.
The Hitmen opened the contest with energetic shifts from all four lines, including an impressive amount of offensive pressure from the fourth line.
This overwhelming pressure led to the first Calgary power play off a Dom Schmiemann elbowing minor. This power play however, lasted just 19 seconds as Ridly Greig drew a hooking penalty off a gorgeous individual effort resulting in a scoring chance. Dakota Krebs was also penalized for cross checking under a minute later giving the
Wheat Kings a man advantage. While Brandon was unable to capitalize, the early penalties certainly led to a chippy style of play between the two playoff bound clubs. After Luka Burzan was penalized for goaltender interference just past the 12 minute mark, the Wheat Kings found themselves with a short handed offensive zone faceoff. Ridly Greig took advantage of the rare opportunity by ripping a shot right off the draw right past Brayden Peters for a 1-0 Brandon lead.
While both clubs exhibited undisciplined play with five infractions per side, the shorthanded marker from Greig stood to be the only goal in the period despite the five shot advantage in favour of Calgary.
The Wheat Kings wasted absolutely no time to start the second as Cole Reinhardt scored on Brandon’s third and fourth shots of the period to extend the lead to three just under four minutes in.
The two teams continued to exchange man advantages, however, Jiri Patera to no surprise, remained solid while the Hitmen penalty kill was also successful. Eventually Mark Kastelic gave his team a much needed surge when the captain skated up ice shorthanded before undressing the Brandon defender and beating Patera for a highlight reel finish.
Mark Kastelic spoke about the loss and Jiri Patera’s excellent play after the game and said “ Today we had a couple bounces that didn’t go our way, but at the same time I think we started to get to him (Patera) a bit and that’s good progress.”
With time winding down, both teams began to play with more composure and discipline as the Hitmen deficit was now only two goals. Kyle Olson who was riding a three-game six-point streak, was presented with a glorious open net chance with barely a minute left in the second. Jiri Patera however, made a gorgeous stick save to preserve the two goal lead heading into the third.
Brandon began the third laying body left, right and centre on the Hitmen, although Calgary had the definite edge in offensive opportunities.
Not five minutes in Calgary was handed their sixth power play. While the Hitmen man advantage saw some scoring chances, occasional sloppy puck possession left the Calgary power play scoreless. The Hitmen kept up the pressure as they dominated in shots recording nine to Brandon’s one. After a too many men penalty was assessed to the Calgary bench, it was clear that fatigue had set in for the Wheat Kings as they were dominated on their own powerplay. Cael Zimmerman while shorthanded yet again, cut the Wheat King lead to one as
Zimmerman and Carson Focht had an electric shift causing several turnovers in the Brandon zone. As the game trailed on, and the Calgary net was vacant, the Hitmen threw every loose puck on net with the exhausted wheat kings doing everything in their power to prevent shots.
Despite the continued surge from Calgary, Jiri Patera made numerous big saves to secure his team’s victory over the Hitmen. After the loss Calgary head coach Steve Hamilton expressed his pleasure despite the loss stating “We did a lot of good things. We wanted to get our shot volume up in the third period and did a lot of shooting from all kinds of angles… They made one more save than we did, but we played well.”
The Hitlist
- Mark Kastelic recorded his fourth shorthanded goal of the season and eighth of his WHL career. Kastelic is also in a league leading tie for shorthanded markers with Dylan Cozens and Krystof Hrabik.
- Cole Reinhardt picked up his sixth multi-goal game of the season and 11th of his WHL career. The native of Irricana, Alberta finished the season series against Calgary with three goals and three assists in four contests.
- Jiri Patera finished the campaign 3-0-0-0 against the Hitmen while making 102 saves on 105 shots.
