In their first ever meeting with the Penticton Vees, the Wheat Kings got a remarkable goaltending performance from Filip Ruzicka. As their goaltender stood on his head, the 20-year-olds repaid their netminder with offense at the other end.
Grayson Burzynski, Nicholas Johnson, Luke Mistelbacher, and Jimmy Egan all scored and Ruzicka was outstanding with 47 saves as the Wheat Kings beat the Vees 4-0.
“This was a big win,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “We continue to talk about our character and you can chock this up to another high character win. They have a good team, they’re older, they have 14 or 16 19 or 20-year-olds so this was a really good test for our guys and it was nice to get a win.”
In a first period played at breakneck pace, it was the Wheat Kings who broke through. On the power play, Jaxon Jacobson broke in and flipped a pass back to Burzynski. As the Vees tried to take away his pass options, the veteran defenseman took the space he was given, walked in and sniped his 11th of the campaign.
The second period saw more special teams play, but the only goal came at even strength, and it was a strange one. After taking a handoff on the right wing wall from Max Lavoie, Johnson tried to feed the puck back to Jordan Gavin but instead his pass went off the heel of a Vees’ skate and, taking a downright vengeful bounce, it went all the way from the right circle to the back of the Vees’ net.
After a successful penalty kill of their own, the Wheat Kings went to work in the offensive zone in the third. Jacobson carried the puck around the net and put the puck perfectly in the wheelhouse for Mistelbacher, who made no mistake from close range.
There were desperate moments from there, including a long stretch of penalty killing time and an extended period of 4-on-4-turned-5-on-4 when the Vees pulled their goalie. But Ruzicka shut down every shot thrown his way, and when the Wheat Kings got a chance at the empty net, Egan got a hold of the loose puck and buried it.
The win is the fifth straight for the Wheat Kings, and their fifth this season over a BC division opponent. Next up, the Edmonton Oil Kings tomorrow at 6:00 Central Time.
