Photo courtesy of Chris Mast
The Brandon Wheat Kings opened up their two-week, seven game road trip with a 3-2 loss in Everett on Wednesday night.
The Wheat Kings led 2-0 after the second period, but a pair of quick powerplay goals to start the third was the difference for the Silvertips, who move to 6-3-0-0 on the season.
Cole Fonstad had a goal and two assists in his debut with the Silvertips, with his 3rd period goal coming just fourteen seconds into the frame, to swing the momentum in Everett’s favour.
“We had the game in control through two periods,” said Assistant Coach Don MacGillivray. “We needed to kill the sixteen seconds of the five-on-three to start the third…we didn’t, they score and all of a sudden it’s a brand new game.”
Brandon got goals from Cole Reinhardt and Jonny Lambos to open up the 2-0 lead at the 2nd period break. For Lambos, it was his first career WHL goal, while Reinhardt has now scored in back to back games.
Jake Chiasson picked up his first career WHL point, assisting on Lambos’ 2nd period marker.
Gage Goncalves had a pair of goals, including the game winner for Everett, who improve to 6-3-0-0 on the season.
Ethan Kruger was excellent between the pipes for Brandon, stopping 39 shots, including turning aside 33 shots in the first 40 minutes.
“This is a tough loss here tonight. I think we deserved a bit better. We did some real good things, especially early in the game. We got pucks behind their defense and had some zone time, we played well in our own zone and Ethan was excellent for us.”
Kruger has not won this season, yet sports a .929 save percantage. Brandon has scored just six goals in four games Kruger has started.
“We’re facing good teams here, that’s the reality of it,” added MacGilivray. “We’re not scoring a lot of goals right now. When you’re not scoring you have to do something else to contribute to the team. I think we had that tonight. For the young guys it was a really good test and I like how we played, it was just a couple of penalties that cost us.”
The Wheat Kings scratched Jiri Patera, who is recovering from an ankle injury and did not travel to Washington with the club, as well as Bode Hagan (Healthy), Jack Zayat (Healthy) and Riley Ginnell (Healthy). Attendance at Angel of the Winds Arena was 3,047.
The Wheat Kings will now move to Seattle on Friday before heading to Portland on Saturday night. You can catch both games on QCountry radio starting at 9:00 MB time in Seattle and 7:0 MB time in Portland.
SCORING SUMMARY
1st PERIOD
BWK – Cole Reinhardt (2) (Greig, Nychuk) 10:53
Shots: 18-9 Everett
2nd PERIOD
BWK – Jonny Lambos (1) (Chiasson) 17:34
Shots: 15-9 Everett
3rd PERIOD
EVR – Cole Fonstad (3) (Wylie) 0:14 (5on3)
EVR – Gage Concalves (2) (Kindopp, Fonstad) 1:17 PPG
EVR – Gage Concalves (3) (Zellweger, Fonstad) 5:35
Final Shots: 42-29
