One night removed from a close win over the Moose Jaw Warriors, the Wheat Kings had the same results offensively with three goals. At the other end, however, their goaltender didn’t surrender a thing.
FIlip Ruzicka made 31 saves for his first career shutout, and Joby Baumuller scored what proved to be the game-winning goal as the Wheat Kings downed the Moose Jaw Warriors 3-0. Caleb Hadland and Brady Turko also scored in the win.
“I thought the first period was excellent, it was kind of disheartening to come out even,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “I thought we had a really strong first period, we had a lot of chances we didn’t score on. We got the two at the start of the second period and from there we kind of resorted to thinking it might be easy… we sputtered a little bit the last half of the game but got it done.
Most of the first period was spent in Warriors’ territory as the Wheat Kings buzzed around the offensive zone, sometimes for minutes at a time. They couldn’t break through, however, despite a goal post and a 9-4 shot advantage through the opening 20 minutes.
The second period proved kinder to the Wheat Kings shooters. Nigel Boehm took a shot from the left point through traffic, and for the second night in a row he got the redirection he was after, this time with Baumuller getting the tip on it for his 25th.
Just 43 seconds later, the Wheat Kings struck again. Breaking in with speed, Luke Mistelbacher spotted Hadland at the right circle, and the captain one-timed home his 12th.
As the two teams went back and forth in the third, the Wheat Kings made one of their looks off the rush count. Chase Surkan sent Turko in up the right side with a step, and Turko wired one home to stretch the lead to 3-0.
Though they gave up some chances on a late power play of their own, the Wheat Kings and Ruzicka held the fort the rest of the way. They took the win, and Ruzicka took his first career shutout.
The Wheat Kings get back to work just two days from now as they travel to Swift Current to face the Broncos. Puck drop is 7:00.
