The home team had lost the last five consecutive games between the Wheat Kings and Saskatoon Blades. The veterans for the Black and Gold ensured that streak ended at Westoba Place.
Marcus Nguyen scored a hat trick, and Luke Shipley and Caleb Hadland scored once each as the Wheat King won 5-2 over the Blades. Carson Bjarnason made 28 saves in the win.
“It’s a big win,” said head coach and GM Marty Murray. “Saskatoon is playing some good hockey lately and they came out with good jam tonight. We weathered the storm a little bit, I’d like to see us get more pucks to the net early, but as the game went on I thought we played some pretty good hockey.”
After killing the first power play of the game, the 20-year-olds led the counter attack for the Wheat Kings. Nolan Flamand dropped the puck back to Shipley as he joined the rush, and the veteran defenseman snapped home his 15th of the season.
Early in the second, Nguyen went to work. First, he took the puck along the offensive zone and found some space in the high slot, wristing in the 2-0 tally.
Then, on the power play, Nguyen was the beneficiary of a world-class set-up by Roger McQueen. McQueen held the puck in the zone as the Blades tried to clear, then pulled everyone in toward him as he sold the shot before slipping it across to Nguyen for the one-timer and the 3-0 lead.
The Blades got on the board when Zach Olsen found the puck out of a scramble in front and fired it past Bjarnason. But just 45 seconds later, the Wheat Kings restored their three-goal lead when Nguyen sent one through the screen of Nicholas Johnson and in for his hat trick goal.
Given a third look at their power play, however, the Blades got back within two again. Hayden Harsanyi’s pass bounced between the feet of his intended target, took a hop off the end boards to the right side of the Wheat Kings’ net, and lay waiting for Tanner Scott, who pounced on it to make it 4-2.
Rather than go into a defensive shell, the Wheat Kings pressed in the third, piling up 20 shots. Although they didn’t break through, they kept the Blades to the outside as well. And when the Blades pulled their goaltender, Jordan Gavin picked off a pass and sent Hadland up ice to finish things off with an empty netter.
The win gives the Wheat Kings a temporary tie with the Blades atop the East Division. Next up: a home-and-home with Moose Jaw starting on Friday night in Brandon.
