A goaltenders’ duel between a depleted Brandon Wheat Kings team and the Prince Albert Raiders came down to the wire on Friday, November 28. The Raiders blinked last.
Nicholas Johnson scored the lone goal for the Wheat Kings, and Filip Ruzicka was stellar with 33 saves on 35 shots but the Wheat Kings fell 2-1. The final shots were dead even at 35 and all the scoring was done at even strength.m
“I thought our guys played pretty hard,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “They’re obviously a really good team and we had some good looks to bring the game back to a tie or go up. We didn’t bear down on opportunities and their goalie made some saves. There are some plays we’d like to have back.”
A point shot with plenty of traffic opened the scoring for the Wheat Kings. Dylan Ronald took a partner pass from Cam Allard and let a shot go through a screen, which Johnson got a stick on for the opening tally.
When the Raiders replied, their defense was heavily involved as well. Justice Christensen took a one-timer from the top of the left circle and blasted it home to tie the game.
The second period belonged to the goaltenders. Both Ruzicka and Dimitri Fortin came up with multiple highlight reel saves, and neither one surrendered anything on the scoresheet despite 12 shots for each team.
As it turned out, there would be only one more goal in the game and it came from the Raiders. After the Wheat Kings could not connect on an early third-period power play, Jonah Sivertson danced his way in and drove to his forehand, outwaiting first a diving defenseman and then Ruzicka for the go-ahead goal.
The Wheat Kings tried to press back late but couldn’t break through a suffocating Raiders’ defense. They take a short break before hosting the Saskatoon Blades on Wednesday night at 7:00.
