Much of the talk about the Brandon Wheat Kings this offseason was about their depth up front. While that was on display at the home opener, it was one man who did much of the scoring.
Roger McQueen scored a natural hat trick in the third period and Ethan Eskit stopped 23 of 25 shots thrown his way as the Wheat Kings opened up their season with a 5-2 win. Jackson Unger stopped 42 shots at the other end as the Wheat Kings had the Warriors under siege for much of the third.
“It was a battle.,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “You can look at the score and see it was 5-2, but anyone who was here knows it was a closer game. True to our form, we had another strong third period, which is encouraging. We found a way to get it done.”
Despite a heavy Wheat Kings’ shot advantage early, it was Moose Jaw who struck first in the home opener to take some of the starch out of the crowd. Connor Schmidt came over the line up the left side and used the Wheat Kings defenseman as a screen, beating Eskit with a shot to the far post.
On a double-minor power play, the Wheat Kings found their response. McQueen picked up the puck on the goal line to the left of the net, spun it out front and stuffed it home to tie the game.
But again, despite the Wheat Kings owning a significant shot advantage, it was the Warriors who came out with the lead. Lynden Lakovic rifled home a shot from the left circle to break the deadlock and send Moose Jaw to the second intermission up one.
Early in the third, McQueen began his offensive explosion. On a delayed penalty, McQueen picked up the puck at the bottom of the right circle and rifled it over the shoulder of Unger to tie the score.
He was nowhere near done. First, Marcus Nguyen drove the net and left the puck behind for McQueen who sniped home his third of the game. And when the Warriors finally pulled the goalie, there was McQueen again, hitting the open cage from long range.
Rylen Roersma added another empty netter for good measure and the Wheat King skated away with the 5-2 win. Next up, the Wheat Kings are in Regina to take on the Pats tomorrow night at 7:00 Central Time.
