In their final home game of the regular season, the big guns for the Brandon Wheat Kings put on a show.
Joby Baumuller and Marcus Nguyen scored twice each, while Jaxon Jacobson, Matteo Michels, and Luke Shipley picked up singles as the Wheat Kings routed the Regina Pats 7-3. Carson Bjarnason stopped 33 of 36 shots in the win.
“It was nice to see some goals go in tonight, for sure,” said head coach and GM Marty Murray. “Jacobson, Baumuller, and Michels’ line was effective early on and then we got going as a group. It was nice to put some pucks in the net.”
Just 91 seconds in, the Wheat Kings found the scoresheet first. Quinn Mantei held the line with some deft footwork, and flipped the puck down low to a wide-open Jacobson. Jacobson worked the puck to his backhand and lifted home a sneaky shot.
Jacobson got back on the scoresheet early in the second in a play that took barely a second to execute. Jacobson won the draw right back to Baumuller, and Baumuller snapped it through traffic, wasting no time on the shot whatsoever and making it count for the 2-0 lead.
Baumuller and Jacobson connected again just 43 seconds later. Breaking in 3-on-2, Jacobson put the puck on a tee for Baumuller, and again he wasted no time, one-timing in his 18th.
Although the Wheat Kings killed the first Pats’ power play of the game, the Pats eventually made them pay. Holding the zone after the kill expired, the Pats sent the puck through traffic, with Caden Brown getting the redirection and the goal.
But the Wheat Kings replied on a power play of their own. On a quick passing play, Mantei sent the puck to the right circle for Jordan Gavin. Gavin tapped it straight to the middle for Nguyen, who blasted the puck to the top shelf for the 4-1 lead.
The offense of both teams came alive in the second. The Pats started it off (again after another power play) when Zach Pantelakis bounced one off the ear of Bjarnason and in. The Wheat Kings answered twice at four-on-four, first with Roger McQueen putting the puck in Shipley’s wheelhouse from behind the net, then with Adam Belusko delivering a perfect backdoor pass to Nguyen.
Even on the penalty kill, the Wheat Kings kept the offense rolling. Michels won a battle just inside the Wheat Kings’ blue line and rocketed up the ice, fighting loose from his checker and sniping his 20th of the season shorthanded.
The Pats would get one back late to pretty up the scoreboard a little, but by then the result of the game was no longer in question. The two teams will play their rematch and regular season finale tomorrow night in Regina at 7:00 Central Time.
