Against the reigning WHL champion Everett Silvertips, the Brandon Wheat Kings roared out of the gate in the first period and controlled the play. The rest of the game, however, that dominance began to shift the other way.
Aiden Foster had a goal and an assist, and Levi Ellingsen and Cam Allard also scored but the Wheat Kings fell 5-3 to Everett. Filip Ruzicka made 27 saves in the loss.
“It starts with our power play,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “At the start of the second period we have a three and a half minute double minor on the power play, we come out and go through the motions and think it’s going to be easy. We just got outworked and gave up more chances than we got on the power play, and it snowballs from there.”
Three and a half minutes into the first period, Foster finished off a power play that he also drew. Ruzicka snapped the puck up ice himself to Joby Baumuller, who carried in on the left wing. Baumuller fed it out front to Foster, and the Tampa Bay Lightning prospect made no mistake, beating Bennett Byers blocker side.
At even strength, the forward depth for the Wheat Kings came through to extend the lead. Ellingsen dropped the puck off to Jimmy Egan, who dropped it himself to Ryan Boyce. Boyce let shot go and while Byers made the initial save, Ellingsen deflected the puck in as he crashed the crease.
Two goals under a minute apart in the second period put paid to the Wheat Kings’ lead. First, on the power play, Jaxsin Vaughan found the rebound of a point shot that hit him and slipped the backhand past Ruzicka. Then, Luke Vlooswyk made a slap-pass to Rhys Jamieson, who tapped it home.
Before the second period was out, the Silvertips had the lead. Lukas Kaplan drove off the wall, and while his initial shot was blocked, it came right back to him. He realized where the rolling puck was first and snapped home his first of the season for the 3-2 lead.
Though the Wheat Kings killed two full minutes of 5-on-3, another power play tacked onto the end of that one saw Everett stretch their lead. Jamieson took a pass at the top of the right circle and one-timed it home.
The Wheat Kings refused to quit. Foster broke in up the left wing and spotted Allard jumping up to join the rush. Allard snapped home his first of the season to cut the lead in half.
But the Silvertips responded. A shot by Kaplan rang iron, but the rebound sat behind Ruzicka and Hunter Rudolph was there to jump on it and cash it in.
With the net empty, the Wheat Kings pressed and seemed nearly to break through several times over. But nothing further changed on the scoresheet and the Wheat Kings fell 5-3.
Brandon now heads on the road for back-to-back divisional matchups, starting with the Warriors in Moose Jaw on Tuesday night at 8:00 PM Central Time.
