Wheat Kings Gut Out Win In Odd Outing Against Calgary
Perhaps the strangest game of the season for the Brandon Wheat Kings, which included stoppages for a fire alarm and eight power plays for the Calgary Hitmen, ended up going the Wheat Kings way on home ice. Even down a few bodies, they got five different goal scorers yet again.
Caleb Hadland, Brett Hyland, Carter Klippenstein, Jackson DeSouza, and Jaxon Jacobson scored as the Wheat Kings beat the Hitmen 5-3. Carson Bjarnason stopped 29 shots in the win.
“It was kind of a wild game,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “Thankfully we got the last goals. It wasn’t pretty at times, but we got it done.”
A scrambly first period culminated in two scrambly goals, and the Wheat Kings had both of them. First, Hadland fought off a pair of stick checks in front of the net after a pass found its way to him, then he spun and fired home a backhand.
A beautiful move by Jacobson made the next goal possible. Though he was stopped on his backhand, and so was Brady Turko on the follow up, Hyland stuffed home the rebound to make it 2-0.
The second period descended into utter chaos, and it started just over a minute in when Ethan Moore beat Bjarnason off the rush with a shot to the top corner. From there, the fire alarm went off multiple times, the second of which caused a stoppage that prevented a breakaway for Jayden Wiens.
Klippenstein restored the Wheat Kings’ two-goal lead off a neat feed from Seth Tansem but the Hitmen clawed back, first on a point shot by Dax Williams, then on a power play redirection by Oliver Tulk to tie the score.
Another penalty could’ve spelled disaster for the Wheat Kings, but instead they found a way to get some life out of it. One a two-on-one Wiens fed DeSouza for his first as a Wheat King to take the lead.
Jacobson added to the Wheat King lead off the rush when he broke into the zone off a feed from Hyland. He snapped one past Buenaventura from the top of the left circle to make it 5-3.
