This time, a tough first period was too much for the Brandon Wheat Kings to overcome.
The Wheat Kings battled back after falling down early, but they ran out of time in a 6-4 loss to the Regina Pats. Carter Klippenstein, Joby Baumuller, Caleb Hadland, and Chase Surkan scored in the loss.
“We looked kind of lifeless and it was disappointing for sure,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “We were down 3-0 (after the first) again and that’s a tough hole to climb out of.”
In a storybook moment for the Regina Pats, on the night his father and sister dropped the puck at the ceremonial puck drop as the Pats honoured his mother who passed away from cancer, Zachary Lansard opened the scoring. He was left alone in front, took a feed from Julien Maze, and cut quickly to the backhand for his fourth of the season.
The Pats’ second goal of the game required video review, but it stood. Ruslan Karimov was stopped on his first try, but kicked the puck in on his second. After a long chat between the referees and the video goal judge, the goal stood.
Ephram McNutt made a bid for the highlight reel on the third Pats goal of the opening period. On the power play, he picked up the puck in his own zone, carved his way through the four Wheat Kings’ defenders, and finished off the end-to-end rush on his backhand to make it 3-0.
Early in the second, the Wheat Kings broke through. Baumuller got into the clear and his backhander found the crossbar, but Klippenstein followed him to the net and whacked home his second goal in as many games.
The teams traded power play goals from there. McNutt one-timed home a goal at 4-on-3 from the top of the left circle, but Baumuller did him one better in the Pats zone, from almost the same spot just as a 4-on-3 turned to a 5-on-4.
Late in the second, however, penalty trouble came back to bite the Wheat Kings. They killed one Pats power play, then another, but before the penalized player could rejoin the play, the Pats sunk in a late dagger with Kolten Bridgeman picking a corner from the top of the right circle to make it 5-2.
After a successful penalty kill each way, the Wheat Kings got on the board in the third. Cam Allard fired a shot into traffic and it pinballed its way to Hadland, who buried it from close range.
The next time they got a power play, the Wheat Kings made it count. Jaxon Jacobson and Luke Mistelbacher worked the puck to Surkan off the rush, and he snapped one home in his hometown.
“Every night in this league there are wild comebacks,” Murray said. “I honestly thought we had one in us there in the third getting within one. We took some penalties at inopportune times tonight and we took another one when we were 6-on-5 at the end.”
The Wheat Kings pushed with the net empty, but were assessed a penalty for roughing and though they were able to pull Ruzicka to make it 5-on-5, the Pats found the empty netter with 6.7 seconds left to seal the deal.
Next up for the Wheat Kings: a two-game home-stand starting next Saturday night as they host the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
