After two textbook periods, the Brandon Wheat Kings suffered a brief slouch against the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the third period. They recovered quickly, however, and piled up offense for their fourth straight victory.
Carter Klippenstein, Joby Baumuller, and Jordan Gavin all scored twice and added an assist each, and Luke Mistelbacher also scored as the Wheat Kings won 7-3. Jayden Kraus stopped 21 shots for the win.
“The first forty minutes were pretty solid and then we have about six or seven minutes with some chaos there,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “They pushed themselves back into the game. We were able to respond once they made it 4-3 but that got a little tighter than it needed to.”
Early in the first, the Wheat Kings opened the scoring off a tape-to-tape stretch pass. Nicholas Johnson sent Baumuller ahead, and Baumuller drove the slot and ripped one under the bar. The assist was Johnson’s 100th career point.
Before the period was out, Johnson had his 101st. He broke in wide to his left, carried the puck below the goal line and fed it out front to Baumuller. Though Baumuller was stopped, his shot left a perfect rebound for Gavin to bury from close range.
Another line got in on the act for the Wheat Kings early in the second. Klippenstein tipped the puck to Chase Surkan, who found Mistelbacher off the rush. The Wheat Kings’ leading goal scorer made no mistake from the right circle to stretch the lead to 3-0.
On their first power play of the game, the Wheat Kings extended the lead further still. Surkan picked the puck up at the right circle and sent it back door to Gavin, who tapped home his second of the evening.
The Hurricanes bit into the lead early in the third. First, a 2-on-1 turned into a bounce off a Wheat Kings’ skate and in on a rush by Kade Duell and Easton Daneault. Then, with the Hurricanes on a 4-on-3 power play, Hudson Kibblewhite took a pass in front and outreached Kraus to make it 4-2.
Just under four minutes later, the Hurricanes drew closer still. Off the rush, the Hurricanes’ leading scorer, Luke Cozens, picked his corner and made it a 4-3 game.
Klippenstein stemmed the tide, however. Taking a pass from Mistelbacher up the left wing, the Lethbridge native snapped it on net and snuck one through the five-hole on Koen Cleaver to give the Wheat Kings some breathing room.
When the Hurricanes pulled their goaltender, the Wheat Kings added another tally. Gavin fed the puck over to Baumuller, who waited to see if Gavin would be able to catch up to him to complete the hat trick, but when it became clear there was no passing lane, Baumuller kept the shot for himself and buried it.
The Wheat Kings weren’t done either. Nigel Boehm picked off a pass at the left point and fired it through traffic, with Klippenstein redirecting it home for his second of the period.
The Wheat Kings play their final home game of the pre-Christmas schedule against the Kelowna Rockets on Friday, December 12. Puck drop is 7:00.
