On Friday, the Calgary Hitmen three-game win streak was snapped at the hands of Brandon Wheat Kings. Despite the 37 shots from Calgary, the Hitmen struggled on the power play and spent several minutes killing unnecessary penalties. The Wheat Kings were once again able to shut down the top lines of Calgary and keep Mark Kastelic and Riley Stotts off the season series scoresheet. The combination of Calgary’s scoring troubles and Brandon’s quality shot volume was too much of an obstacle for the Hitmen who eventually lost 4-0.
The third meeting between the two Wheat Kings and Hitmen opened with a crash and bang tone. Both clubs delivered several bone crushing checks in the fast paced first frame. With an early power play given to Brandon off a Blake Allan hold, the Wheat Kings displayed a quick and passive power play. Calgary however, managed to kill their first penalty of the game despite the surging Wheat King man advantage. Brandon continued with a high shot volume style with 12 at the mid way point of the period. This allowed Brandon to capitalize on their second power play. Luka Burzan sent a bullet of a shot which hit the back bar before it came bouncing back out for his team leading 28th goal of the season. Just past the 16 minute mark Brandon extended the lead after Calgary surrendered a 2-on-1 that left Dakota Krebs alone with Duncan Pierce and Marcus Sekundlak. Pierce was able to thread a pass to his teammate Sekundlak who buried five-hole on Brayden Peters. Calgary’s top chance came on the penalty kill off the stick of speedy Josh Prokop who beat out the Brandon defenders to earn a partial breakaway. Prokop ripped a shot that beat Jiri Patera, but not his crossbar. The Wheat Kings finished the frame with the two goal lead. Head coach Steve Hamilton commented on Calgary’s slow start in saying “We recognize that we’ve got to start on time. We’ve been scratching and clawing back in to games pretty consistently but it’s a tough formula to follow”
Calgary began the second with much more offensive zone time than in the first, however, failed to maintain this over the course of the period. Penalty troubles were another theme that continued to haunt the Hitmen with six minors assessed to Calgary in the first two periods. Brandon was once again first to strike as Lynden McCallum beat Peters far left side from the right faceoff circle just over seven minutes in. Despite Calgary with the edge in shots in the second, the Hitmen were still unable to beat the Patera and his trusty posts as Orca Wiesblatt backhanded a shorthanded shot off the right post after burning the Brandon blueliner wide. Patera did manage to save all 24 shots he faced and lead his team into the locker room with the three goal lead.
The Hitmen were gifted a power play just 1:12 into the final period, the struggling power play however was unable to connect and only managed a single shot. Near the 13 minute mark of the period tensions began to boil over for Calgary as Mark Kastelic and 2020 Draft Eligible Ridly Greig had a heated tussle near the Brandon bench resulting in coincidental roughing penalties. Just 47 seconds later, Cole Reinhardt was sent off for cross-checking for the fifth Calgary power play of the night. After another failed Calgary power play Luka Burzan ended Hitmen hopes of a comeback. The Colorado Avalanche prospect potted his second of the game after bouncing on a juicy rebound off a Chad Nychuk point shot. On the other side of the rink, Patera secured the shutout making all 37 saves. Post game Captain Kastelic commented on the play of Patera and his club and said “he made some big saves at times but at the same time there was more we could do to get to him… There is still a couple things we can clean up, but we played an okay game… I think we’ve still got a little bit more to give.”
The Hitmen will continue their homestand on Saturday against the Red Deer Rebels.
The Hitlist:
- Calgary power play drops to 0-for-9 in season series against Brandon while the Wheat Kings scored once on their man advantage for a 2-for-17 success rate against Calgary.
- Jiri Patera recorded his sixth shutout of the campaign in his 30th game played. Patera had only a single shutout last season through 48 games played.
