Another close game, this one in regulation, went against the Brandon Wheat Kings in Virden as they faced the Calgary Hitmen in game three of their first round series.
Luke Mistelbacher scored, and Filip Ruzicka was stellar again with 48 saves, but the Wheat Kings fell 3-1 with an empty netter. Eric Tu made 35 saves on 36 shots for Calgary.
“I thought our exits were missing execution,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “Having clean breakouts, sometimes we’d turn it over or there would be a muffed puck in the neutral zone that would come back at us. Our exits, certainly, we struggled with tonight. Our strength all year has been our depth in scoring and we’ve had a number of guys kind of go dry here.”
Late in the first, after some good chances for the Wheat Kings at 4-on-4, the Hitmen opened the scoring. Andrei Molgachev dodged a check at centre, broke up the left wing, and rifled a shot past Ruzicka for the 1-0 lead.
A bad bounce cost the Wheat Kings the next goal. After getting a breakaway save from Eric Tu at one end, the Hitmen got it back into the Wheat Kings’ end, and even though Ethan Moore fanned on his one-timer, it rolled off a Wheat Kings’ skate, through Ruzicka’s five-hole, and in.
Brandon got their counter before the period was out. Prabh Bhathal took a hit to make a play at centre, dropping it off to Jaxon Jacobson, who broke in with speed and fed it back out front to a waiting Mistelbacher for the tap-in.
Neither team had any luck on the scoreclock in the third until there was just 1:44 remaining. With the Wheat Kings’ net empty, the Hitmen picked off a pass and Landon Amrhein sent the puck all the way down the ice and into the empty.
The Wheat Kings get a day off and then it’s backs-against-the-wall time with game four in Virden. Puck drop is 7:00.
