A run of hat tricks on home ice continued for the Brandon Wheat Kings, but this time the final result went against them as they hosted the Red Deer Rebels.
Joby Baumuller scored three times, and Brady Turko added one of his own, but the Wheat Kings fell 7-4 on home ice. Jayden Kraus stopped 31 of 36 shots he faced, with Red Deer adding a pair of empty netters.
“We played the right way (in the first period) we had a lot of chances, but it was kind of disappointing to go back into the locker room at 1-1 after one,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “We had a lot of really good chances to score and then we started the second period on our heels and that kind of continued on through the rest of the game.”
After furious pressure in the Red Deer zone, the Wheat Kings broke through. Nigel Boehm’s point shot was stopped, but Carter Klippenstein freed up the rebound for Baumuller, who stuffed it in.
With just 1:34 on the clock, however, the Rebels responded. Matus Lisy leapt up to create an odd man rush and took a drop pass, snapping home the tying tally.
A bad bounce put the Wheat Kings down by one in the second as a D-to-D pass in the defensive zone hit a skate and bounced right to the slot for Beckett Hamilton. The Rebels’ leading scorer gave them the lead with a quick release.
Baumuller went back to work from there. Breaking in wide to his right on the rush, he let his heavy shot go from the right circle and beat Peyton Shore.
With his line working hard in the offensive zone, Baumuller completed the hat trick. Off a scramble, Carter Klippenstein spun the puck back out front, and Baumuller found it first and cashed in for his second hat trick of the season.
But again the Rebels had a late equalizer. On the power play, Kraus made the initial stop but the rebound popped out to Samuel Drancak with 6.9 on the clock, and he buried it.
The Rebels carried that momentum into the third. Keith McInnis jumped up into the rush and sniped one to give them the lead. Then, off a turnover behind the Wheat Kings’ net, the puck came out front to Landon MacSwain, who made no mistake for the5-3 advantage.
The Wheat Kings showed no quit. With the net empty, Gio Pantelas put a pass right in Turko’s wheelhouse, and he hammered a one-timer past Shore to cut the lead in half.
The next time the Wheat Kings pulled the netminder, however, the Rebels made them pay as their captain, Talon Brigley, buried one from long range with 1:31 to go. And when the Wheat Kings pulled Kraus again, the Rebels got another, this one from Hamilton again.
The loss drops the Wheat Kings to 8-9-1 on the season. To get back to .500, they’ll have to beat the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday night. Puck drop is 6:00 PM.
