The Brandon Wheat Kings pre-Christmas schedule has ended with the sweet taste of victory. Playing against the Winnipeg ICE on Tuesday night, the Wheat Kings held off the home team by a score of 4-3.
In a game that saw the ICE score three straight goals to take a 3-2 lead with less than half a period left in the game, Brandon staged a late comeback and they have two veterans to thank for it as they picked up two points.
The loss prevented from Winnipeg getting closer to Prince Albert for the top spot in the East Division. With a record of 19-13-1, they’re still five points back of the Raiders.
“I thought it was a really good game and I liked the way we played despite the loss,” said James Patrick, ICE head coach courtesy of winnipegice.ca. “We outshot them and we did a lot of good things. I also think Jiri Patera was fantastic all night long.”
Brandon would open the scoring as Ben McCartney tallied his 14th of the season at the 14:52 mark. Prior to the first period ending, Brandon would add another. With 1:51 left, Marcus Sekundiak scored his fourth of the season to make it 2-0 for the away team.
Just 15 seconds later, however, Winnipeg got back in it. That’s when Connor McClennon scored his 14th of the season to trim the deficit in half.
The second period provided no goals as both goaltenders stole the show. Patera would make 12 saves in the second while Liam Hughes made seven saves.
Connor McClennon would tie the game up just 4:03 into the third period. Owen Pederson would then score
his ninth goal of the season at the 11:21 mark as Winnipeg took their first lead of the game at 3-2. Pederson’s goal was on the power play.
That power play goal was followed by another a short time later. With 5:09 left in the third, Cole Reinhardt tallied his 22nd goal of the campaign to tie the game up.
Just when the game looked like perhaps it was heading into extra time, Brandon had other ideas. At the 18:11 mark, Braden Schneider scored the game-winner with his fourth of the season as the Wheat Kings skated off with two points.
Brandon improved to 15-15-1-2 and they’re three points back of Calgary for the top wildcard spot. Thanks to a 3-0-0-2 record in their past five games, Brandon is now tied with Saskatoon for the third spot in the East Division.
Brandon and Winnipeg will renew their “Manitoba Battle” right after Christmas. The two teams meet on Friday, December 27 in Brandon and they meet the next night in Winnipeg.
Wheat Tips:
- Two Winnipeg players had two points on the night with Peyton Krebs leading the way with three assists. Connor McClennon had two goals.
- Two Brandon players also had two points. Ty Thorpe had two assists while Ben McCartney had one goal and one assist.
- Brandon scored 15 goals in their last two games while Winnipeg gave up seven as they lost two straight heading into Christmas.
