Despite having by far the better of the shots on goal, the Wheat Kings saw the bounces go against them against the Vancouver Giants. And on more than one occasion, they influenced some bad bounces themselves.
Marcus Nguyen scored, and Carson Bjarnason made 17 saves, but the Wheat Kings fell 3-1 to the Giants. Burke Hood stopped 31 of 32 shots he faced for the Giants.
“I thought we had a pretty good game, we had a lot of zone time and a lot of chances,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “Their goalie played well but we just didn’t score. That’s one of the only things we didn’t do tonight was score, and I thought it was a good effort otherwise.”
After dodging one bullet when a Giants’ goal was waived off in the first period, the Wheat Kings succumbed to another. Only 13 seconds after the disallowed goal, Tyler Thorpe went end to end at 4-on-4 and ripped home his 17th.
The end of the first period was disastrous for the Wheat Kings. With only eight seconds remaining in the period, they won an offensive zone draw and tried one last shot. But the shot hit a Wheat King parked in front, and it bounced free for the Giants who send Adam Titlbach in alone. He scored on the breakaway with half a second to go in the period.
Early in the second, the Wheat Kings earned some power play time and made it count. Nguyen fed the puck to the right circle for Nolan Flamand, and Flamand sent it right back to him across the seam for a one-timer that Nguyen hammered to the back of the net.
Throughout the third, in which they outshot the Giants 11-3, the Wheat Kings looked for more offense, but a bad turnover just inside the Giants’ zone sent Titlbach in alone again. This time, rather than shoot, he deked to the backhand and put the game out of reach.
Next up for the Wheat Kings is a battle with next season’s Memorial Cup host, the Kelowna Rockets. Puck drop is 9:00 Central Time.
