An undermanned Brandon Wheat Kings squad showed no quit and no fear against the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Their effort, however, wasn’t rewarded with much luck.
Nolan Flamand scored twice, and Marcus Nguyen added another, but the Wheat Kings fell 5-3 to the Hurricanes. Ethan Eskit made 30 saves in the loss.
“I was overall pleased with the effort,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “We did a lot of really good things. It was a gritty effort, we had ten forwards. We battled and some of those chances just don’t go in. We hit three or four goalposts tonight.”
Goals came fast and furious in the first period. First, the Hurricanes worked the puck off the wall and into the middle, where Logan Wormald was waiting to snap it home. Then, Cameron Norrie spun and threw the puck on net from long range, fooling Eskit and making it 2-0.
The Hurricanes added to their lead on the power play, with Cooper Gisowski picking it up at the left circle after his first shot was blocked. Trying a second time, he made this opportunity count.
The score probably didn’t reflect the play, however, and the Wheat Kings at last got rewarded for their hard work. Luke Shipley worked the puck along the offensive zone and spotted Flamand at the back door. He banged away in close to stuff home his second of the campaign.
Early in the second, the Wheat Kings got back within one when Nguyen drove the net and knocked home his fourth. There was a long review for kicking, but the goal stood.
Unfortunately, another puck that crossed the line for the Wheat Kings was called off on review, and the Hurricanes seized the momentum back with another Wormald goal, this one at four-on-four. But on a 5-on-3, the Wheat Kings took the momentum back again, this time with Flamand one-timing home another pass from Shipley.
The third period saw a couple more successful penalty kills, a pushback late, and unfortunately another goal post for the Wheat Kings. And that was as close as they would come before Logan McCutcheon sealed the game away with an empty netter.
The loss drops the Wheat Kings to 4-4-0-1 on the season but they get a chance to bounce back on home ice on Wednesday night against the Spokane Chiefs. Puck drop is 7:00 Central Time.
