A five-game winning streak had the Brandon Wheat Kings riding high, but a showdown with the Calgary Hitmen showed them they still have work to do.
Ethan Eskit made 26 saves on 27 shots in relief of Carson Bjarnason, but the Wheat Kings couldn’t break through offensively and lost 5-0 to the Hitmen. The Hitmen outshot the Wheat Kings 47 to 28 in the contest.
“The first ten minutes were pretty ugly when you get down 3-0,” said What Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “They came out ready to play and that was the difference.”
The first period was all Hitmen and it started on the very first shift. After a shot from the point produced a rebound, Ben Kindel bounced it in off a couple of Wheat Kings from the left side of the Brandon net.
With their first power play of the game, the Hitmen kept the ball rolling when Carter Yakemchuk followed his own rebound and swatted it home. Then, off an offensive zone draw, old foe of the Wheat Kings Tanner Howe curled to the middle and snapped a quick shot past Bjarnason to make it 3-0.
In the second, the Hitmen kept on rolling on the power play. First, it was Kindel with a snapshot that ended Bjarnason’s night. Then, Brandon Gorzynski pulled a puck to his left, just beating Eskit with the backhander for the Hitmen to go up 5-0.
In the third period, the Hitmen more or less locked the game down. And when the Wheat Kings did break through, they hit a post and were on the wrong end of a ten-bell save by Daniel Hauser.
The loss halts a five-game winning streak for the Wheat Kings, who get right back to work tomorrow night in Swift Current. Puck drop in that game is 7:00.
