On their opening night, in front of a crowd of over 4200, the Brandon Wheat Kings showed some fight after going down in the first half. They didn’t leave themselves enough time to claw their way back, however.
Chase Surkan scored twice, and Jordan Gavin and Gunnar Gleasman scored but the Wheat Kings fell 6-4 to the Moose Jaw Warriors. Jayden Kraus made 34 saves in the loss.
“We were on our heels, especially defensively,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “Our d-corps as a whole need to be better. We were kind of overwhelmed in the first half of the game. We were much better in the second half but when you have a few passengers and you get down that much, it’s hard to climb back into it.”
The Warriors got a bounce off the rush early and made it count. A long-range pass out of their zone bounced off the official and sent Casey Brown in with a step up the left side. He snapped one five-hole for the first goal of a new season.
It wasn’t long before the Wheat Kings responded. Surkan freed up the puck with his forecheck, and fed the puck out front for Easton Odut. Odut and Grayson Burzynski were both foiled point-blank, but the rebound found Surkan, who had started the play and then ended it for his first WHL goal.
Though the Wheat Kings penalty kill nullified the only power play of the period, the Warriors struck twice more at even strength. First, Pavel McKenzie took advantage of a turnover and made a nice move to the backhand before lifting it home. Then, as Brown drove the net, he left a rebound for Ethan Semeniuk, who cashed in from close range.
Early in the second, Moose Jaw didn’t let up. First, Brown got his second of the game on a three-way passing play which he finished off on the backhand. Then, as a power play expired, Colt Carter pinched up and fired in his first WHL goal.
The big guns got the Wheat Kings back on their toes. Jaxon Jacobson went in 2-on-1 with Gavin, and sold the shot perfectly to leave Gavin with the open net for a one-time goal.
Then, the young guns got in on the act. Prabh Bhathal fed the puck out from behind the net to Gleasman, and while the Colorado native was stoned on his first backhand try, he kept whacking away until he knocked the puck home for his first WHL goal.
In the third, with a power play to work on, the Wheat Kings got back within one. Pantelas fired a pass down low to Gavin, who immediately dished it across to Surkan for his second of the game.
The comeback would fall short, however. With 30.1 seconds on the clock, the Warriors made a long-range bid for the empty net, and found it. The sixth goal of the game would salt it away.
The Wheat Kings get a chance to instantly avenge the loss. They travel to Moose Jaw for a rematch tomorrow. Puck drop is 6:00 local time, 7:00 Central.
