With their season on the line, the Wheat Kings came out of the gate with their best start of the series so far. Little by little, however, the Hitmen ate away at the lead Brandon had built.
Grayson Burzynski and Chase Surkan scored, and Filip Ruzicka made 23 saves but it wasn’t enough to save the Wheat Kings’ season as they fell to the Calgary Hitmen 4-2.
“We came out extremely hard, that was probably some of our best hockey that we’ve played in the first ten minutes of the game tonight,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “We got up two and we were humming. It would’ve been nice to get the third one and stretch it out. We took some penalties in the first that took the momentum away from us and after that it was kind of a see-saw battle.”
For the first time in the series, it was the Wheat Kings who opened the scoring. Jordan Gavin broke in up the left wing and wrapped it back out front for a pinching Burzynski, who snapped home his second of the series and the first of the game.
On their first power play of the game, the Wheat Kings doubled their lead. Burzynski fed the puck out front to Joby Baumuller, and rather than shoot the 40-goal scorer spun the puck back-door to Surkan, who wired it past Eric Tu.
The Hitmen answered back in the second period. After Ruzicka made back-to-back saves in close, the puck bounced back out front off a Wheat Kings’ skate, and Kale Dach was ready and waiting for it, cashing in with his second of the series.
But the third period turned against the Wheat Kings sharply. First, just as a power play expired, Harrison Lodewyk tapped in a cross-crease pass from Dach to make it a tie game. Then, veteran forward Ethan Moore broke up the right wing and rifled home what would prove to be his fourth straight game-winning goal.
The Wheat Kings made a last minute bid with the net empty, but it was not to be. Julien Maze made a strip in the offensive zone and fired home the insurance marker.
The loss ends the season for the Wheat Kings. Features on graduating players will appear in the coming weeks.
