The Wheat Kings have given up more goals than they’d like so far in this preseason, but thanks to some highly skilled forwards, they’ve been able to outscore their problems twice.
Jordan Gavin scored the overtime winner, and Jaxon Jacobson scored twice as the Wheat Kings downed the Swift Current Broncos 6-5. Merrek Arpin, Jimmy Egan, and Carson Ralph also scored in the win.
“It looked like a preseason game, no question about it,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “It was a pretty sloppy game. We started off well in the first twelve minutes, we did a good job carrying the play but to their credit they fought back. Overall, a pretty sloppy preseason game.”
For the second game in a row, the Wheat Kings opened the scoring early. Arpin pinched up and tried to feed the puck back door to Gavin, but the puck never reached Gavin. Instead, it reached the back of the net as it bounced off the stick of a backchecking Bronco and in.
Another bank shot off a Bronco stick gave the Wheat Kings a 2-0 lead. Egan tried to send the puck from just inside the offensive zone to Easton Odut who was parked in front, but once again a Bronco got a little too eager with their defensive stick and poked the pass away from Odut and right into the net.
The Broncos could argue they were due for a bounce and they got one on their first power play of the game. Trae Wilke took a backhand shot off the rush that produced a rebound, and William Morin, driving the net, ended up kicking it in. Because he was outside the crease, the goal stood and the Wheat Kings lead was cut in half.
Early in the second, the Broncos tied the game and quickly took the lead. Just 31 seconds in, Ashton McCann found the rebound of a breakaway by Jaxen Gauchier and cashed in from close range. Then, Wilke sniped one off the rush.
Jacobson, who’d also hit a crossbar, went to work from there. First, he took a pass from Chase Surkan that left him alone in front, cut to the backhand, and lifted it home. Then, he got the last touch on a pretty passing play on the power play, set up in front by Gavin and with all the time he needed to lift it home.
Again the Broncos had an answer. This time, off a miscue in front of the Wheat Kings net, the puck found Jayden Oleskiw, who wasted no time lifting it home.
In the third, the Wheat Kings looked to their young guns for offense, and Ralph delivered. After winning a battle on the right wing wall, he stepped off the boards and snapped one through the five-hole on Joey Rocha to make it 5-5.
“It was a bit of a mix-up play,” Ralph said. “I was looking for a D-man up top, but nothing was there so I just saw a lane and got a little lucky I think. But you’ve got to be lucky to be good, right?”
Virden native Bryce Bryant tied the score after a turnover behind the Wheat Kings net. After Wilke knocked the puck down, he fed it out to Bryan for the tying tally.
Overtime, however, would give the Wheat Kings’ high-skilled players one more chance to show their offensive acumen. Jacobson fed Gavin in the slot, and while his first backhand move was stopped, he would not be denied on the rebound, and the Wheat Kings took the win in overtime.
The rematch between the Wheat Kings and Broncos goes tomorrow night in Virden. Puck drop is 7:30.
