The Brandon Wheat Kings got down 2-0 to the Kelowna Rockets on their teddy bear toss goal night before they scored the big goal. Once they scored it, however, they never looked back.
Jordan Gavin scored the big goal for the Wheat Kings, and Joby Baumuller and Carter Klippenstein scored twice each as the Wheat Kings beat the Memorial Cup hosts 6-3. Chase Surkan also scored and Filip Ruzicka made 29 saves in the win.
“It was huge for us to get that big goal,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “Kind of the same shift we got the second one to tie it up. It was sure nice to go into the break up 3-2 after giving up the first couple.”
After chances at both ends, it was the Rockets who opened the scoring. Hiroki Gojsic worked his way from the right wing wall to the slot on his backhand and lifted it over the right pad of Ruzicka for the game’s opening tally.
The Rockets struck again off a turnover in the Wheat Kings’s zone. After a clearing attempt hit a body and bounced onto the tape of Hayden Paupanekis. The Montreal Canadiens pick wasted no time snapping to the top corner.
But the Wheat Kings quickly turned the tide. Nicholas Johnson got the puck at the right circle and cleverly sent it backdoor to Gavin, who waited for an opening and made it count, sending a tidal wave of teddy bears to the ice at ACU place.
On the very next shift after the teddy bears had been cleared away, the Johnson-Baumuller-Gavin line went back to work. Johnson showed off his setup skills again, sending Baumuller into the clear, and Baumuller rifled home his 19th, setting a new career high and tying himself for the team lead.
Klippenstein wrapped up the outburst of offense, which took less than five minutes, with a gorgeous goal. Caleb Hadland won a battle down low and fed it out front to him, and Klippenstein deked his way past a diving Josh Banini in the Rockets’ net, cut back to his forehand, and calmly stuffed home the go-ahead marker.
The power play provided the Wheat Kings’ offense in the second period. First, Grayson Burzynski found the puck in the slot out of a scramble and fed it across the seam to a waiting Surkan who, as he has all season, cashed in.
On another power play, the second unit came through. Gio Pantelas sent the puck to Hadland at the bottom of the right circle, and he put it right on Klippenstein’s tape for the tap-in and the 5-2 lead.
The Rockets got a power play goal of their own in the third. Mazden Leslie took a point shot, and Carson Wetsch was there for the rebound, burying it from close range to cut the lead to 5-3.
Once the Rockets pulled their goaltender, however the Wheat Kings got their look at the open net and put the game out of reach. For the second game in a row, Baumuller got a look at the empty net and made it count.
The schedule shifts to the road for the Wheat Kings as they head to Alberta for the second time this season, starting in Edmonton on Sunday afternoon at 4:00 local time.
