Wheat Kings win Murray’s coaching debut

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This article was published 02/12/2022 (1421 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Marty Murray era as head coach began with a victory on Friday as the Brandon Wheat Kings beat the Prince Albert Raiders 5-4 in Western Hockey League action at Westoba Place.

Brandon (9-15-2-0) received its goals from Luke Shipley, Zakhar Polshakov, Nate Danielson, Brett Hyland and Rylen Roersma, with Hayden Pakkala, Harrison Lodewyk, Ryder Ritchie and Keaton Sorensen replying for Prince Albert (10-14-2-0) in front of a crowd of 2,622.

Murray, who was named head coach after Don MacGillivray’s dismissal last Sunday, said it was a good effort in a trying time for the club.

“I was happy the guys played hard,” Murray said. “It’s been a long week for everybody and a tough week and I thought the guys played a pretty solid game. We got up 5-2 and got squeezing the sticks a little bit and maybe didn’t manage the puck as well as we needed to but overall I thought it was a pretty good effort.

“We kept them under 20 shots, and that’s always a plus, and I thought we created a decent amount of offensive opportunities.”

The Wheat Kings are back in action tonight as they welcome the Swift Current Broncos (12-11-0-0) to Westoba Place for a 7 o’clock matchup.

The visitors opened the scoring five minutes 46 seconds into the opening frame when a rebound squirted through a mass of bodies in front of the net. Pakkala got the puck in the low slot and backhanded it by Brandon starting goalie Carson Bjarnason.

The teams took penalties 37 seconds apart midway through the period, sending them to four-on-four action, and Shipley scored on a second chance. He had his first shot blocked by Raiders defenceman Eric Johnston, got the puck right back, skated a step and sent a wrist shot over Prince Albert goalie Tikhon Chaika for his first goal as a Wheat King.

“It’s great, especially coming into a new team and getting the first one with the guys is great,” said Shipley, who arrived in Brandon last week following a trade with the Victoria Royals. “Especially after the coaching change, it’s great to get the win for Marty and the whole team.”

Before the period ended, Shipley did some fine work to keep the puck in the Prince Albert zone as a couple of Raiders battled him. Polshakov picked up the puck near the blue-line, skated into the middle, and rifled a shot over the blocker of his friend and Belarusian countryman Chaika.

“I think they chipped it up and I gloved it down and tried to get it down and even kicked it down, and then it popped out,” Shipley said. “Polsh had a great shot, top left.”

The opening minutes of the second period certainly tested the stamina of the goal judges.

With Brandon on the power play to open the second period, the puck came to Nolan Ritchie, who skated into the Prince Albert zone and fired a pass at the net, where Danielson deflected it in just 12 seconds into the frame. It was the 100th point of Danielson’s WHL career.

“We set up a play off the opening faceoff,” Danielson said. “Nolan got the puck coming down the left side of the ice and I was on the other side, and they were sort of standing at the blue-line. I saw it coming the whole way. We’ve had a couple of goals like that in our time. He made a good pass and I had an open net.”

Just 65 seconds later, Mantei’s shot was blocked by Prince Albert’s Justice Christensen but bounced straight to Hyland, who fired it into an open Prince Albert net to give the hosts a 4-1 lead.

It took just two minutes for the Raiders to get one back, with Carson Latimer sending a pass into the middle off the rush and Lodewyk outmuscling a Brandon defender to deflect the puck in. But three minutes after that, Roersma deflected a Mantei shot to put Brandon up 5-2, with the four goals coming in less than seven minutes.

There was a scary moment with just three seconds left in the period when Brandon’s Charlie Elick was driven into the boards by a Prince Albert forechecker. Brandon athletic therapist Josh Hartwick quickly signalled it was an emergency situation and was joined on the ice by Prince Albert athletic therapist Duane Bartley and other staff.

The rookie defenceman was down for several minutes, and after being comforted by his teammates as he was wheeled off the ice on a stretcher, gave a thumbs-up to the crowd.

Prince Albert, which managed just nine shots through two periods, roared back into the game in the first four minutes of the third period.

They scored 43 seconds into the third period when a series of Brandon miscues led to Sorensen feeding Ryder Ritchie for a tap-in goal.

Another Wheat Kings mistake made it a 5-4 game three minutes later. Brandon defenceman Logen Hammett turned the puck over in the neutral zone, leading to a three-on-one and a quick snapshot by Sorensen for his 13th goal of the season.

The intensity immediately ratcheted up in what was already a hard-hitting game, setting the stage for a dramatic finish. Prince Albert pulled Chaika for the extra attacker with 86 seconds left, and after a Brandon icing, took a timeout with 48.6 seconds left and a faceoff in the Wheat Kings zone. The closest either team came to scoring was when Hyland narrowly missed the open net.

“I think the group had a lot of energy tonight,” Danielson said. “Obviously it’s Marty’s first game so we wanted to go out there and have a good performance for him and get things started off on the right foot.”

Bjarnason made 11 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Chaika stopping 22 shots for the Raiders. Brandon went 1-for-2 on the power play, with Prince Albert unsuccessful in three chances.

ICINGS: Brandon skated without F Evan Groening (healthy scratch), F Ben Thornton (upper body, indefinite), F Caleb Hadland (lower body, indefinite), D Zach Turner (illness, day to day) and D Owen Harris (healthy scratch) … The Everett Silvertips acquired defenceman Niko Tsakumis from the Seattle Thunderbirds on Friday for a fourth-round pick in 2023 and a sixth-round pick in 2026 … Nolan Ritchie led the Wheat Kings with five shots on net … The game took two hours, 26 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 39-19.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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