Tyler Coulter recorded his first career Western Hockey League hat-trick as the Brandon Wheat Kings beat the Kootenay Ice 11-1 on Wednesday night.
Jayce Hawryluk had two goals and four assists for Brandon, giving him 24 points during his current seven-game point streak, and 32 points in the last 12 games.
Nolan Patrick had one of the other goals for Brandon to extend his goal-scoring streak to seven games, the longest in the WHL this season.
“A little bit of everything on that line,” said Brandon GM/Coach Kelly McCrimmon on CKLQ’s post-game show, “I mentioned on one of the other post-game shows about being happy to see Jayce rewarded because his game is based on hard work. As a coach, when you’ve got a guy working that hard getting rewarded, that’s something that sends a good message.”
Coulter also had a pair of assists in the contest to give him a career-high five points, and the Brandon product now has 33 points (16 G, 17 A) in 32 games since December 1st.
“It was definitely a little different to start the season this year,” said Coulter, “I just had to be patient and keep doing all the things right.”
Ty Lewis and Kale Clague added a goal and an assist each for Brandon while Ivan Provorov, Stelio Mattheos and Jordan Thomson had the other Wheat Kings’ goals.
Logan Thompson stopped 17 shots in the Wheat Kings’ net, allowing only a goal to Kootenay’s Matt Alfaro midway through the second period with Brandon already leading 6-0.
Wyatt Hoflin and Declan Hobbs combined to stop 36 shots in the Kootenay net.
The victory leaves Brandon eight points up on second-place Prince Albert in the East Division standings, and five points behind first-place Lethbridge in the Eastern Conference standings.
Both the Raiders and Hurricanes lost on home-ice Wednesday, with Prince Albert falling 4-2 to Regina and Calgary downing Lethbridge 6-2.
