For the second game in a row, the top two goal scorers for the Brandon Wheat Kings found the back of the net three times between the two of them. This time, however, the defensive effort didn’t match the one in Portland.
Luke Mistelbacher scored twice, and Joby Baumuller scored a power play goal, but the Wheat Kings fell 7-3 to the Seattle Thunderbirds. The loss moves the Wheat Kings to 1-2 on the U.S. portion of the road trip.
“I liked our first period and I thought we did a lot of good things,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “We had a lot of chances and we came ready to play. It was kind of the same at the start of the second, we had a lot of chances, a couple of breakaways, but they got one off the rush, we took an undisciplined penalty and they scored on it, the wheels kind of fell off in the second half of the second period.”
Early in the first, the Wheat Kings got the strong start they were looking for. Daniil Skvortsov sent a shot-pass from the left point to Mistelbacher in front of the net, and the veteran sniper had time to pick his spot and bury his 27th.
After killing a penalty against, the Wheat Kings had two chances to extend their lead on the power play. But the WHL’s top scoring shorthanded side turned that on its head. Matthew Gard picked off a pass, went in alone, and flipped one over the trapper of Ruzicka and in.
The Wheat Kings started the second period strong as well. Mistelbacher took a hand-off from Giorgos Pantelas and broke up ice, going end-to-end before finishing on the backhand for his second of the game.
But the Thunderbirds offense suddenly exploded. First, Ashton Cumby saw that Ruzicka was tangled up with a body in front and sapped a shot on net and in right away. Then, Sawyer Mayes tapped in a feed off the rush at the back post from Radim Mrtka. Rounding out the three-goal run, Gard found himself alone again and lifted home 11th.
Finally the power play broke through for the Wheat Kings to stem the tide. Mistelbacher took a shot that produced a rebound and Baumuller was right on the doorstep to cash in his league-leading 33rd.
The Thunderbirds’ power play answered, however, when Coster Dunn found the puck out of scrum and sent it low in to the back of the net. And with time ticking down, the Thunderbirds sunk in a dagger when Ethan Bibeau found the rebound of a shot off the post and knocked it in.
Through the third period, despite some four-on-four play, the score didn’t change until Mayes put the game away with an empty netter. The Wheat Kings move to 2-2 on the road trip and travel to Wenatchee to face the Wild tomorrow.
