A see-saw battle with an unfamiliar, highly skilled opponent tilted the Wheat Kings’ way for good in the third period against the Spokane Chiefs. They didn’t exactly take the easy route to the win, however.
Marcus Nguyen and Matteo Michels scored twice each, and Joby Baumuller and Nolan Flamand had one each in a 6-3 win. Carson Bjarnason made 22 saves for the victory.
“The second period was a little bit of our Achilles heel again tonight,” said head coach and GM Marty Murray. “They roared back and tied it up, but the fourth goal at the end of the second was critical for us. It allowed us to take a breath, and getting that one seconds into the third period was a help.”
The first period was a statement for the Wheat Kings after their recent struggles. It started with Michels dropping the puck to Luke Shipley and Shipley shooting for a rebound, which Michels knocked home for his second.
Dominik Petr showed his patience off the rush to set up the next goal, waiting for Baumuller to join him and Nguyen off the rush. Baumuller leaned into a shot that Dawson Cowan had no chance on to make it 2-0.
Petr’s playmaking was on display again on the third goal. Picking off a pass inside the line, he flipped it to the front of the net for Nguyen, who showed great patience while all alone to stuff home the third and final goal of the period.
The second, however, was nearly as rough on the Wheat Kings as the first was good. By the time the period was 6:30 old, Berkly Catton had three assists and the score was tied at three. The first goal came off the opening faceoff when the Chiefs picked off a stretch pass, and Catton fed Rasmus Esktrom for the tap-in.
Chase Harrington ripped home a pair of goals, both set up by Catton, one of them just as a power play expired from the bottom of the left circle off a feed behind the net. The second came off the rush from the right circle, a clean shot to the top corner.
In the final minute of the second, the Wheat Kings got their response. Prabh Bhathal fed the puck to Jaxon Jacobson off the rush, and he sent it across to Michels who tapped home his second of the game.
Early in the third, the Wheat Kings got their first power play and made good on it. Jacobson fired the puck through the seam to find Flamand alone at the back door, and he batted it home.
A power play for Spokane could’ve turned the tide, but it put the momentum even more decisively in the Wheat Kings’ corner. Nguyen broke in one-on-two and just snapped the puck on net, hoping for a good bounce. He got one, as the puck snuck through Cowan to put the Wheat Kings up 6-3.
The game ended on a nasty note as Matthew Edwards was assessed a five-minute major for a hit on Petr. But the game ended with the 6-3 score intact, despite a ton of sudden nastiness.
