Chiasson’s late goal sinks Raider rally

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This article was published 06/12/2022 (652 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jake Chiasson scored with less than three minutes remaining to negate a Prince Albert Raiders comeback as the Brandon Wheat Kings emerged with a 4-3 victory in Western Hockey League action at Art Hauser Centre on Wednesday.

Brandon (11-15-3-0) received its other goals from Brett Hyland, Calder Anderson, Nolan Ritchie, with Niall Crocker, Gabe Ludwig and Harrison Lodewyk replying for Prince Albert (10-16-2-0) in front of a crowd of 2,281.

The Wheat Kings, who lost 5-4 in overtime to the Saskatoon Blades on Tuesday, beat the Raiders 5-4 last Friday.

On a night when the two teams were assessed a combined 19 penalties, special teams changed the game despite just one power-play goal being scored.

Brandon went 1-for-5 on the power play, with Prince Albert unsuccessful in six chances.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said the penalties had a real impact.

“The challenges are real simple,” Murray said. “Some guys are playing too much and other guys aren’t playing enough. We have a lot of guys who play both sides of special teams and they were exhausted, especially coming off a game last night and the travel.

“We have some guys who don’t kill, and they ended up getting taken out of the game. We had a lot of rhythm in the first period and everybody involved and then the penalties look everybody out of the game.”

It didn’t take long to turn into that kind of night. Brandon’s fourth line drew a penalty 37 seconds into the action, and while the Wheat Kings didn’t score on the man advantage, they built some quick momentum.

They opened the scoring four minutes 28 seconds into the game when Chiasson forced a turnover in the neutral zone and nudged the puck over to Hyland, who ripped a shot past Prince Albert goalie Tikhon Chaika.

Anderson extended the lead 12:19 into the period when Brandon quickly counterattacked as Prince Albert made a line change. Anderson skated into the zone and snapped a shot from just above the faceoff dot inside the far post.

After Brandon built a 11-2 advantage in shots, Prince Albert pushed back in the final few minutes of the opening frame and Wheat Kings goalie Carson Bjarnason was tested with several shots he was able to turn aside.

By the end of the period, the visitors held a narrow 12-9 edge on the shot clock.

The hosts had a four-on-three power play into the second period, and Mason Ward and Quinn Mantei both blocked shots as Brandon held on to its two-goal lead.

The Wheat Kings nearly extended the lead shorthanded when Ritchie fired a shot off the crossbar as Brandon killed its third penalty of the game. They ended up giving the hosts a 48-second, two-man advantage but were able to kill both minors.

Shortly after killing a penalty, Prince Albert’s Crocker tipped a shot from the point past Bjarnason to bring the Raiders back within a goal.

Mantei was the recipient of a knee-on-knee hit less than a minute later, but Brandon’s players responded so angrily that the Raiders ended up on the power play.

Prince Albert only managed the one goal in the middle frame despite parts of five power plays, but outshot the visitors 14-6.

Brandon restored the two-goal lead 8:43 into the final frame, fittingly with a power-play goal. The Wheat Kings pinned the Raiders penalty killers into the Prince Albert zone for more than 90 seconds and Ritchie finally tipped a Nate Danielson shot for his 12th goal of the year.

But the choppiness continued, and with the teams playing four-on-four, Ludwig rifled a shot over Bjarnason’s shoulder. Two minutes later, Lodewyk came in off the rush one-on-two and was allowed to move into the slot, where he fired a shot back against the grain to tie the game.

With overtime looming and 2:09 left on the clock, Chiasson’s shot from the side of the net along the ice fooled Chaika and went between his legs to restore the Brandon lead.

Prince Albert pulled Chaika with a minute left, but was unable to mount much of an offensive attack before the final buzzer.

Bjarnason and Chaika each made 25 saves.

“They’re battling and they’re playing right to the buzzer and that’s what you need,” Murray said of his players. “(On Tuesday), to come back against a pretty good team down two in the third and get one point — ideally we would have loved to have two — but we got a point and after the game talked that we had a real chance to set ourselves up for a good road trip to get three out of four.

“We battled. It wasn’t always pretty at times tonight but we got it done.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured forwards Caleb Hadland (lower body, indefinite) and Ben Thornton (upper body, indefinite), plus defencemen Charlie Elick (upper body) and Eastyn Mannix (healthy scratch) … Zach Turner returned to the lineup after missing six weeks due to mononucleosis … … The Moose Jaw Warriors acquired 20-year-old defenceman Logan Dowhaniuk from the Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday for 18-year-old forward Nathan Pilling and a third-round pick in 2025. The Warriors lost Brandonite Cole Jordan to a season-ending injury on Nov. 15 that will require surgery … Danielson, Turner, Roger McQueen and Rylen Roersma led the Wheat Kings with three shots each on net … The game took two hours, 21 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 32-29 … The Wheat Kings have today off and return to practice on Friday.

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