With all the scoring in a barn-burner of a contest, the Wheat Kings only led the Victoria Royals for 45.6 seconds in the entire showdown. It was, however, exactly the right 45.6 seconds.
Jaxon Jacobson scored the dramatic, last-minute game winner, and Joby Baumuller, Jordan Gavin, Marcus Nguyen, and Luke Shipley also scored in a 5-4 Wheat Kings’ victory. Ethan Eskit made 29 saves in the victory.
“It was pretty back and forth, no question about it,” said head coach and GM Marty Murray. “I think the biggest thing was we were down 4-2 with 12 minutes left in the game and it was a really gutsy effort to come back. The easiest thing to do would be to fold your tents and start thinking about the next one, but it was really gritty of our guys to come back.”
The Wheat Kings had the best chances of the period on special teams, getting golden opportunities both on the power play and shorthanded. At the other end, however, Jayden Kraus came up with big saves for the Royals.
The goals came far more readily in the second. First, the Royals broke the seal shorthanded when Hayden Moore danced in with a nice move and shelfed a backhand. The Wheat Kings answered when Matteo Michels fired a shot from the right circle that bounced off Baumuller as he drove the net and in.
On their third power play of the game, the Royals took the lead again. Brayden Boehm settled the puck at the bottom of the right circle, kept for the shot, and beat Eskit blocker side.
Again it was at even strength where the Wheat Kings answered. Jacobson won a battle behind the Royals net and sent the puck out front to Gavin. The Surrey native picked a corner for his first as a Wheat King.
The busiest offensive period was still to come, and the Royals led it off with a pair of goals. First, ex-Wheat Kings Teydon Trembecky fired one from the middle of the point that filtered through traffic and in. Then, the Wheat Kings left old rival Brandon Lisowsky alone in front and he made them pay with a quick snapshot.
But the Wheat Kings refused to quit. First, Nolan Flamand and Dominik Petr worked a break in and that ended up with the puck being sent across to Nguyen in prime shooting position, an opportunity he made the most of.
As they pressed in the offensive zone, Quinn Mantei worked the puck to the middle for Shipley, who dragged it along the blue line and ripped home the tying goal in the building he started his WHL career in.
An absolutely unbelievable sequence of events left Jacobson with a breakaway coming out of the penalty box. The Royals hit a crossbar so hard the puck went right back to centre and sent Jacobson into the clear. He shielded the puck, went right to the goal, and flipped home the game-winner with 45.6 seconds to go.
Next up for the Wheat Kings: a showdown with the best in the west (best in the league in fact) in the Everett Silvertips. That game is Friday night at 9:05 Central Time.
