Wheat Kings rally to beat Giants 4-3 – Brandon Sun

The Brandon Wheat Kings finally picked up their first win of the season on Friday, overcoming an early 2-0 deficit to beat the visiting Vancouver Giants 4-3 in Western Hockey League action at Assiniboine Credit Union Place.

Brandon (1-4-1-0) got goals from Luke Mistelbacher, Nick Johnson, Chase Surkan and Brady Turco, while Aaron Obabayfo, Jakob Oreskovic and Ryan Lin responded for Vancouver (2-6-0-0) in front of a crowd of 2,301.

“I think we had a lot of ups and downs at the beginning of the season, and to come out like this shows that we can be contenders in the league,” Turco said. “That's what we're going to move forward. I really like the way we played. I thought we were flying in the O zone and defending well. We played a great game all around.”

Although they didn't make it easy for him in the end, Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray looked pleased his club finally earned two points.

“Oh man, I've been in the game a long time and it's been a busy couple of weeks, no doubt about it,” Murray said. “Just to get the first goal, the boys will have some confidence and win the way we did, keeping 21 shots in, and after we conceded the first two goals, I think we had a pretty neat game after that.”

After the Wheat Kings began to apply some pressure early in the game, the game began to lean towards the Brandon end and it cost them dearly.

The Giants opened the scoring seven minutes, 52 seconds into the game after Obobaifo stole the puck in the neutral zone, skated into the Wheat Kings zone, saw big Brandon goalie Filip Ruzicka waiting for him, raced around the net and scored.

It was the sixth time in six games this season that Brandon's opponent scored first.

To make matters worse, just two minutes later Oreskovic turned Ryan Lean's shot past Ruzicki to make it 2-0. The two-goal deficit seemed to ignite the Wheat Kings, who regained an early jump.

Rookie defenseman Cameron Allard made a great play in the neutral zone, corralling the puck and making a quick pass to Jackson Jacobson at the blue line. He drove in and passed the ball to Mistelbacher, who fired a shot just inside the far post past Vancouver goalie Burke Hood, a Brandonite playing his first WHL game in his hometown.

Two minutes later, Hood miraculously deflected an elbow on the first power play to preserve Vancouver's lead, but the score was 2-2 before the period ended.

Johnson cleared the puck on a partial breakaway and flipped it to Hadland as defensemen closed in on him. Hadland fired a shot into the net, and after Hood fell, Johnson was able to tie the game with a rebound off the 18-year-old goalie with 52.7 seconds left in the first frame.

The game went to 12:07 into the middle frame when Obabaifo was given a double minor for a leg turn.

The Wheat Kings moved the puck on the power play, and 89 seconds later Jacobson found Surkan all alone and the rookie fired home, with Hood diving futilely over the net.

Just 65 seconds later, Caleb Hadland spotted Turco at the net, and the Anaheim Ducks prospect scored his first goal of the season to make it 4-2.

“I had kind of a puck on my end and I gave it to Huds and luckily he found me in the slot,” Turco said. “Seeing it go in was certainly a sigh of relief. Getting the monkey off my back felt really good.”

In a comedy of errors, the Wheat Kings allowed the Giants to get back into the game shorthanded with seven minutes left in regulation when they failed to make a defensive play after a turnover in the neutral zone, and after a lead went awry, Lin scored from the slot to make it 4-3.

Brandon had largely controlled the game up to this point, and given his ability to get teams back into the game this season, it was desperation time for the hosts.

Hood left the net for an extra attacker with 1:17 left, and although Brandon had a couple of chances to hit the open net but missed, Vancouver never seriously threatened.

Murray liked his club's defensive efforts.

“We had to have a certain level and I thought that was probably the best game our player had as a group,” Murray said. “I didn't think we gave them much. They killed plays and moved pucks, and if there was a breakdown, we had that extra layer that you need.”

Ruzicka made 18 saves for the Wheat Kings, while Hood stopped 31 shots for the Giants.

“I thought he made some big saves,” Murray said of the 6-foot-7 Ruzicka. “I'm sure it will take some getting used to and we have to remember he's 17. He's just a little kid.

“Perhaps because of the transfer he didn't realize what he was getting into and was aware of the desperation that we needed to win, but hats off to him. He made some big saves in important moments.”

Brandon went 2-for-6 on the power play while Vancouver failed to get a single chance.

Vancouver assistant coach Wacey Rabbit, whose team wraps up a six-game road trip against the Regina Pats tonight, said the penalties do hurt.

“I thought we were good in the first period,” the former Saskatoon Blades star said. “Both teams are trying to find their feet at the start of the season and for us it has a lot to do with discipline. You could see we did well in the second period and then we gave away a couple of penalties and that breaks the momentum of our game. We want to play five-on-five – we think we're a great five-on-five team – and we scored a couple of shorthanded goals and now we're chasing.”

“I thought we played well in the third period, we just ran out of time, but credit to Brandon, they played hard.”

COVER: Brandon skated without injury: defenseman Merrek Arpin and defenseman Adam Hlinski, plus healthy scratches: Gunnar Gliesman, Ryan Boyce and Hudson Perry… Nick Johnson led the Wheat Kings with six shots on net… The game lasted two hours and 20 minutes… In the face-off circle, Vancouver won 32-25… The Wheat Kings will face the Swift Current Broncos on Sunday at 4:00 p.m.

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