Regulation wasn’t enough for the final game before the holidays for the Brandon Wheat Kings. They took one point, but let the second escape them in the shootout.
Marcus Nguyen, Giorgos Pantelas, Caleb Hadland, and Luke Shipley scored, but it wasn’t enough as the Wheat Kings fell 5-4 in the shootout. Ethan Eskit stopped 24 shots in the loss.
“Especially in the first period, I thought we were really lethargic and on our heels,” said head coach and GM Marty Murray. “We created a little bit more in the second and third, but we were a little bit lifeless. We seemed to get up and then give one back.”
A pinching Aiden Ziprick opened the scoring for Moose Jaw in the first period. As a pass from below the goal line came all the way to the point, Ziprick took the space he was given, walked in, and snapped home the opening tally.
The second period was total insanity from start to finish. It started on the power play, when Jaxon Jacobson fired a shot-pass to Nguyen, who perfectly redirected it in to tie the game.
The Warriors took the lead on a power play of their own, thanks to a perfect drag shot by Riley Kovacevic. But at even strength, Nguyen worked the puck over to the right point for Pantelas, who sniped his second career goal.
After Hadland delivered a hit on the forecheck, the Wheat Kings got their first lead of the night a moment later when he freed the puck up for Joby Baumuller, who fed it back to him in front for the tap-in.
Again the Warriors tied the score, this time with Kovacevic knocking down a dump in and feeding it out front to Lynden Lakovic. And again the Wheat Kings took the lead back with Shipley one-timing home a knuckler right off an offensive zone faceoff.
In the dying seconds, the Wheat Kings surrendered a deflating goal. Lakovic broke in and ripped one on net from the right circle, and managed to barely beat the clock, which was down to just 0.2 seconds when he put it in.
From a goal-heavy second period the two teams went to a scoreless third period, despite 18 Wheat Kings shots on goal. Overtime was similarly scoreless, and the two sides went to a shootout.
In the shootout, Lakovic picked up where he left off, scoring the only goal of the penalty shot contest. The Warriors took the extra point.
The Wheat Kings go into the break and won’t play again until December 27. That game against the Regina Pats will be on home ice at 7:00.
