The Brandon Wheat Kings treated their fans to a third period that most won’t forget on Tuesday night inside of Westoba Place.
Brandon scored six goals in the final 20 minutes as they beat the visiting Swift Current Broncos, 7-3. In a game where Brandon trailed by two goals after 40 minutes, the Wheat Kings scored early and often in the third to pick up the eventual convincing win.
“We were a little bit flat in the first period and I think we started to carry the game in the second period,” said Don MacGillivray after the game courtesy of wheatkings.com. “We talked in between the second and third about just sticking with our game plan and working hard and it ended up working out for us.”
Things did start off well for Brandon as Duncan Pierce scored his second of the season to give Brandon a lead just 5:49 into the game. From there, the struggling Broncos capitalized on their chances.
On the power play at the 9:42 mark, Sergei Alkhimov tallied his fourth of the campaign to tie it up and it stayed 1-1 after 20.
Despite 18 shots from Brandon in the second, they were unable to get any past Reece Klassen. Swift Current, however, were able to score two goals on just 12 shots.
The first came off the stick of Hayden Ostir with 4:49 left in the second. Before the period was over, Aiden Bulych made it a 3-1 lead for Swift Current after 20.
“We told them to just stay with it and get greasy. Klassen was playing well, but we needed to force the issue more,” said MacGillivray on what was said to the guys after 40 minutes. “We started playing on our toes instead of our heels.”
Just 1:00 into the third, Lynden McCallum hit the double-digit mark with his 10th goal of the season to trim the deficit to one and Brandon was far from done.
Just 1:01 later, Ty Thorpe tied the game up with his third of the season. At the 4:16 mark, Duncan Pierce netted his second goal of the game and Cole Reinhardt put Brandon up 5-3, just 1:24 later.
Chad Nychuk ended up with two assists on the night and he also offered up some thoughts on what the message was after 40 before Brandon took over.
“I honestly don’t think there was much to say. Dave can only say so much, we need to play how he says,” said Nychuk. “Our starts just aren’t where they need to be right now. If we play as we did in the third period, we can do some damage.”
Before the final buzzer went off, the Wheat Kings added a couple of more goals. Ty Thorpe scored his fourth goal of the season and second of the night to make it 6-3 at the 13:25 mark. With 5:01 left, Lynden McCallum would also score his second of the night to give Brandon a 7-3 win and a six-goal period.
Jiri Patera would end up making 24 saves in the win.
Wheat Tips:
- Three Brandon players had multi-goal games. McCallum, Thorpe, and Pierce all had two.
- Brandon did struggle on the power play. They went 0-for-4 while Swift Current went 1-for-3.
- The game was the first of four straight for Brandon on home ice. They’re 6-6-1 at Westoba Place.
- Swift Current now plays in Winnipeg on Wednesday night. The loss dropped them to 2-9-1-1 on the road this season. They’re 6-16-1-2 overall.
