Photo courtesy of Justin Oertel
The Brandon Wheat Kings fired 40 shots on net but couldn’t find a goal when they needed it, dropping a 2-1 decision to Edmonton on Saturday night.
The Oil Kings, who were coming off a 7-0 in Winnipeg on Friday got 39 saves from Todd Scott and goals from David Kope and Scott Atkinson to move to 4-1-2-0 on the season.
"We had some opportunities tonight," said Assistant Coach Don MacGillivray. "Edmonton is a good club and they came hard. We had some moments where we battled hard as well but there were times where we made mistakes. We got too cute and in a tight game, you need pucks to get to the net and need people there winning battles."
Brandon carried the majority of the momentum on the night, outshooting the Oil Kings 30-20 through 40 minutes, but Atkinson’s goal midway through the third turned the tides.
Chad Nychuk would bury his 1st of the season late in the game on a 6 on 4 advantage to cut the lead to one. Despite a late powerplay, the Wheat Kings could not pull even.
"At the end of the day you have to find a way to win games," added MacGillivray. "If you look at these two games vs last weekend it’s night and day how we’ve played. We’ve made steps in the right direction but we still have things to get better at."
The Wheat Kings finished the night 1/7 on the powerplay while the Oil Kings scored once on three opportunities.
Brandon drops to 2-4-0-0 on the season and will have to hit the reset button quickly as they head to Saskatoon for a late afternoon affair with the Blades. (5:00 MB time)
SCORING SUMMARY
1st PERIOD
No Scoring
Shots: 14-9 Brandon
2nd PERIOD
EDM – David Kope (2) (McInDoe) 14:43 PPG
Shots: 16-11 Brandon
3rd PERIOD
EDM – Scott Atkinson (4) (Alistrov, Cap) 7:28
BWK – Chad Nychuk (1) (Reinhardt, McCallum) 18:14 PPG
Final shots: 40-34 Brandon