To a man, the Brandon Wheat Kings all said they weren’t ready to be done. As it turned out, they don’t have to be just yet.
Nicholas Johnson scored the late third-period goal, and Matteo Michels scored twice in a 6-4 Wheat Kings win. Luke Shipley, Nolan Flamand, and Quinn Mantei also scored, while Ethan Eskit made 38 saves in his first ever playoff start.
“It would have been really easy to fold over tonight,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “We had three pretty good players out of the lineup but I thought our guys rallied. We dug in, got big goals, and had contributions from everybody up and down the lineup.”
For the first time all series, the Wheat Kings got the first goal of the game. Dominik Petr handed the puck off to Shipley on the rush, and Shipley did the rest himself, breaking in, driving the slot, and sniping his first of the postseason.
The Hurricanes had their answer late in the period as a long range point shot took a couple of deflections on the way through. Eskit made the initial save, but Brayden Edwards stuffed home the rebound to tie the game.
With barely any time left in the first period, however, the Wheat Kings took the lead back. It was Michels who both started and ended the play, winning a late offensive zone draw. From there, Shipley fed Brady Turko for a one-timer, which created a rebound for Michels to flip in with just 9.6 seconds to go in the frame.
Early in the second, the first power play of the game for the Wheat Kings turned sour when Brayden Yager picked off a pass, went in alone, and buried a nifty forehand move. The Wheat Kings would go on to hit a crossbar later in the power play, one of three posts they hit in the second period.
This time, however, the Wheat Kings made their own luck. Giorgos Pantelas pinched up and fed Flamand at the goal line, and Flamand cleverly banked the puck in to make it 3-2.
For the second period in a row, Michels had some late period magic up his sleeve. Taking a feed from Petr inside the Wheat Kings’ zone, he accelerated into the clear and finished high-blocker with 9.1 seconds on the clock for a 4-2 Wheat Kings’ lead.
That lead, however, didn’t survive the first four minutes of the third period. First, on the opening shift, Shane Smith, one-timed home a feed from the slot. Then, Jordan Gustafson picked off a pass and finished off with a low-hard shot from the high slot to tie the game.
The Wheat Kings, however, would not be so easily dismissed. After Johnson made the steal just inside the Hurricanes’ zone, Adam Belusko took a shot from the right point, and Johnson, who started the play with his hard work, redirected the puck home to finish the play.
The Hurricanes pulled their goaltender late due to a hard forecheck by the Wheat Kings. When they did, Mantei picked off a pass and salted the game away with an empty netter.
The celebration will be short lived. There’s a road trip to Lethbridge awaiting the Wheat Kings, sending them off to Lethbridge for game five on Friday night at 8:00 Central Time.
