Lucky goals lead Wheat Kings past Chiefs

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This article was published 09/12/2022 (649 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nate Danielson scored the latest goal in a teddy bear game in Brandon Wheat Kings history as his club rallied to beat the Spokane Chiefs 2-1 in Western Hockey League action at Westoba Place on Saturday.

Brett Hyland had the winner for Brandon (12-15-3-0) on a night both Wheat Kings goals might be called happy accidents, with Ben Bonni replying for Spokane (5-20-0-1) in front of a crowd of 4,856.

“I was honestly laughing,” Danielson said of the goal, which went in off a skate late in the second period. “It was kind of a weird goal to happen, especially for the teddy bear toss goal. It’s not the way you dream it up to be, but it’s obviously pretty special to score that goal and see all the teddy bears flying down. It was really cool.”

The Wheat Kings return to action on Sunday afternoon at 4 o’clock when they host the Calgary Hitmen.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray was happy to collect the two points. The team now has nine of a possible 10 points in the five games he’s been behind the bench.

“It wasn’t perfect by any means,” Murray said. “It was maybe a little sloppy and there weren’t a lot of scoring chances but we found a way. Our power play came through when it needed to and sometimes that’s the case. You’re not always going to be firing on all cylinders but we found a way. It’s nice to win those close games down the stretch playing the right way.”

In a back-and-forth but scoreless opening frame, Brandon forward Calder Anderson had the best chance when he rang a quick shot from the slot off the post midway through the first period, drawing a groan from a large, noisy crowd eager to part ways with their teddy bears.

The Chiefs finally broke the goose egg three minutes 30 seconds into the second period on an odd-man rush.

Bonni jumped up into the play in the middle, took a pass from Chase Bertholet and fired a shot from the slot past the blocker of Brandon goalie Carson Bjarnason. It was a nice moment for the 18-year-old defenceman, who left the ice in some discomfort in the first period after a thundering hit by Hyland.

On Brandon’s first penalty kill three minutes later, Danielson forced a turnover and went in on a long breakaway, but Spokane goalie Dawson Cowan made the save.

After neither team took a penalty in the first 25 minutes, the floodgates certainly opened for the rest of the game, with 17 minors assessed and each team enjoying six power plays.

That proved to be a key development for the hosts.

Spokane defenceman Saige Weinstein took a double minor for high sticking — Jake Chiasson thoughtfully took time to show the blood from his injury to a referee to get the extra two minutes added on — and Danielson struck when his shot went off the skate of a Spokane defender and past Cowan on his team’s 27th shot.

The goal came 14:05 into the second period, which broke the previous record for the latest teddy bear goal set by Alex Argyriou when he scored 9:14 in the second period in 1998.

“I definitely wasn’t trying to score that one,” Danielson said. “I got a nice pass from (Jake Chiasson) and I saw (Nolan Ritchie) back door and was trying to hit him and just sort of got lucky. It went off the D-man’s skate and managed to go in somehow.”

Needless to say, it was a relief to the Brandon bench.

“Every minute that ticks by, there is a little more pressure,” Murray said. “The worst thing in the world is to get shut out on teddy bear night so every minute that ticks by gets a little more intense. It was nice to get it out of the way.

“It would have been nice to get it earlier but it was a big goal, even though we got a lucky bounce. It was nice to break the ice.”

The gracious hosts sent the visitors to back-to-back power plays late in the middle frame and the first minute of the third period — and Mason Ward took his third minor penalty of the game 21 seconds into the final frame, sending the visitors to a 39-second five-on-three that proved unsuccessful.

Just after that ended, with the teams playing four-on-four in what was becoming a chippy game, Spokane took another penalty, sending Brandon to an 85-second four-on-three, that saw plenty of puck movement on the open ice but no great scoring chances.

But the Wheat Kings capitalized on yet another power play 9:19 into the final frame when Ritchie’s shot deflected into the net off Hyland, who was last year’s teddy bear toss scorer.

“Danny made a great pass back to (Ritchie) back in the slot area and I just went to the net in the backdoor area looking to maybe get a stick on the puck,” Hyland said. “(Ritchie) shot it and it found its way off my leg and into the net. I’ll take that one.”

Spokane struggled to get much going offensively, but the Wheat Kings gave them one final power play with 4:07 remaining, and Carson Bjarnason made an outstanding pad save, with Spokane hitting a post moments later.

The Chiefs pulled Cowan with 45 seconds remaining as they killed the end of yet another penalty, and hemmed Brandon into their zone, but after a faceoff with 20 seconds left, the Wheat Kings cleared the puck into the neutral zone to kill the remaining time.

“It was definitely a weird one,” Hyland said. “The guys were saying that, definitely different than most games we’ve played this year. We had guys rolling in the first but all the penalties kind of shut that down a little bit but a win is a win, and we’ll take it.”

Bjarnason made 26 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Cowan, a Warren product and former member of the Winnipeg Ice, stopping 34 shots for the Chiefs. Both goalies were named stars.

“Barney was Barney,” Murray said of his goaltender. “He was big, he made some real big saves. They threw a lot of traffic at him and I thought he did a really good job of finding pucks.”

Brandon went 2-for-6 on the power play, with Spokane unsuccessful in six chances.

Spokane head coach Ryan Smith, who coached Bjarnsaon and Cowan when they were 13, said they were two of many good things in the matchup.

“I think it was an even game,” the Headingley product said. “It was two teams that played pretty well. There was lots of special teams and that takes the flow out of the game. I thought the first period was unbelievable. It was a great first period, no penalties, everybody got a chance to play, and then we got into penalty problems, they got into penalty problems and it takes a little bit of the flow away.

“Their power play outscored ours tonight. I thought both goalies were outstanding.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without D Charlie Elick (upper body, week to week), F Caleb Hadland (lower body, indefinite), F Ben Thornton (upper body, indefinite), and D Eastyn Mannix (healthy scratch) … The Chiefs also played in a teddy bear toss game on Friday against the Winnipeg Ice, with Strathclair’s Conor Geekie sniping the big goal for the second year in a row … Prior to the game, the Wheat Kings honoured Anderson, Ritchie, Chiasson and Ben Thornton for the role they played in saving a suicidal man’s life nearly two weeks in a pregame ceremony that involved a letter of commendation from Mayor Jeff Fawcett … Spokane forward Grady Lane of Virden was in the starting lineup as he played at Westoba Place for the first time in his three-year WHL career … Roger McQueen led the Wheat Kings with five shots on net … The game took two hours, 33 minutes to play, including the teddy bear cleanup … In the faceoff circle, Spokane won 31-28.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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Wheat Kings 2, Chiefs 1

First Period

No Scoring.

Penalties — None.

Second Period

1. Spokane, Bonni 3 (Bertholet, Cheveldayoff) 3:30.

2. Brandon, Danielson 15 (Chiasson, Anderson) 14:05 (pp).

Penalties — Hyland Bdn (interference) 5:41, Ward Bdn (roughing) 9:30, De Luca Spo (holding) 9:30, Chevledayoff Spo (slashing) 9:30, Weinstein (high sticking, double minor) 12:51, Ward Bdn (interference) 17:04, Hammett Bdn (delay of game) 19:00.

Third Period

3. Brandon, Hyland 13 (Ritchie, Danielson) 9:19 (pp).

Penalties — Ward Bdn (slashing) 0:21, Ritchie Bdn (cross checking) 3:52, Crampton Spo (slashing) 3:52, Weinstein  Spo (holding) 4:28, Gross Spo (interference) 8:53, Mantei Bdn (interference) 10:02, Hammett Bdn (roughing) 15:53, De Luca Spo (roughing) 17:29.

Shots on goal by

Brandon     11     19     6     —     36

Spokane     8     12     7     —     27

Goal — Brandon: Bjarnason (W, 11-9-2-0). Spokane: Cowan (L, 4-5-0-0).

Power plays (goals-chances) — Brandon: 2-6; Spokane: 0-6.

Referees — Bryan Bourdon, Ben Croker.

Linesmen — Nick Grenier, Logan Young.

Attendance — 4,856 in Brandon.