[{"id":74326,"date":"2026-04-03T09:18:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/?p=74326"},"modified":"2026-04-03T15:19:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T19:19:53","slug":"recap-hitmen-eliminate-wheat-kings-and-move-on-to-round-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/article\/recap-hitmen-eliminate-wheat-kings-and-move-on-to-round-two","title":{"rendered":"RECAP: Hitmen Eliminate Wheat Kings and Move on To Round Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virden, MB\u00a0\u2013<\/strong>\u00a0The Calgary Hitmen are officially off to Round 2 after eliminating the Brandon Wheat Kings in Game 4 of Round 1 with a 4-2 victory.<\/p>\n

The Wheat Kings jumped out to an early lead, going up 2-0 in the first period on goals from Grayson Burzynski and Chase Surkan. Calgary began their comeback in the second period, with Kale Dach scoring his second of the playoffs to cut the deficit to 2-1 heading into the third.<\/p>\n

With just over 10 minutes remaining in the final frame, Harrison Lodewyk netted his first of the playoffs to tie the game. Ethan Moore then scored off the rush at the 11:48 mark to give Calgary the lead. Julien Maze added an empty-net goal in the closing minutes to seal the 4-2 win.<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s goal stood as his fourth consecutive game-winning goal. He scored overtime winners in Games 1 and 2, followed by the game-winner in Game 3. In the internet era, no player has recorded four straight game-winning goals in the WHL playoffs; the most recent close mark was Morgan Geekie, who had three consecutive in 2018.<\/p>\n

Eric Tu was stellar in net, winning all four of his playoff starts and finishing the series with a 1.63 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage.<\/p>\n

Round One Results:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Game 1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Friday, Mar. 27 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Hitmen 1 Wheat Kings 0 OT3 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0CGY leads the series 1-0.<\/p>\n

Game 2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Sunday, Mar. 29 \u2002\u2002\u2002\u2002\u2002\u00a0Hitmen 6 Wheat Kings 5 OT \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0CGY leads the series 2-0.<\/p>\n

Game 3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Tuesday, March 31\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Hitmen 3 Wheat Kings 1 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2002\u2002\u2002\u2002 \u00a0CGY leads the series 3-0.<\/p>\n

Game 4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Thursday, April 2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Hitmen 4 Wheat Kings 2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u2002\u2002\u2002\u2002CGY wins series 4-0.<\/p>\n

The Hitmen now await the completion of the other first round series to determine their round two opponent. Ticket details for round two home games will be announced at a later date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virden, MB\u00a0\u2013\u00a0The Calgary Hitmen are officially off to Round 2 after eliminating the Brandon Wheat Kings in Game 4 of Round 1 with a 4-2 victory. The Wheat Kings jumped out to an early lead, going up 2-0 in the first period on goals from Grayson Burzynski and Chase Surkan. Calgary began their comeback in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":74327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[693],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-74326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-693","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2026\/04\/03091816\/IMG_1212-scaled.jpeg",2560,1707,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":1022932,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":74322,"date":"2026-04-01T16:03:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/?p=74322"},"modified":"2026-04-01T16:26:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:26:21","slug":"htv-axel-hurtig-sign-entry-level-contract-with-calgary-flames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/video\/htv-axel-hurtig-sign-entry-level-contract-with-calgary-flames","title":{"rendered":"HTV: Axel Hurtig Signs Entry Level Contract With Calgary Flames"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":74323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[530],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-74322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video","category-530","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2026\/04\/01160313\/Screenshot-2026-04-01-at-2.52.36-PM-scaled.png",2560,1563,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":{"video_id":"2549633","partner_id":"31015","player_id":"47903","width":"16","height":"9","360p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31015\/sd\/2549633.mp4","240p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31015\/ld\/2549633.mp4","480p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31015\/hsd\/2549633.mp4","1080p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31015\/fhd\/2549633.mp4","hls":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31015\/streaming\/2549633\/2549633.m3u8","webp":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31015\/webp\/2549633.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":74317,"date":"2026-04-01T02:38:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/?p=74317"},"modified":"2026-04-01T02:38:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:38:02","slug":"game-3-recap-hitmen-put-wheat-kings-on-brink-of-elimination-with-game-3-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/article\/game-3-recap-hitmen-put-wheat-kings-on-brink-of-elimination-with-game-3-win","title":{"rendered":"GAME 3 RECAP: Hitmen Put Wheat Kings On Brink Of Elimination with Game 3 Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virden, MB\u00a0\u2013<\/b>\u00a0The Calgary Hitmen were in Virden, Manitoba for Game 3 of their first-round series, earning a 3-1 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings and pushing them to the brink of elimination.<\/p>\n

Andrei Molgachev opened the scoring late in the first period, giving Calgary the early lead heading into the second. The game remained scoreless through most of the middle frame until the final six minutes. After a spectacular breakaway save by Eric Tu, play quickly transitioned the other way, where Calgary capitalized with Ethan Moore scoring his fourth goal of the playoffs and what would be his third straight game winner. Just over a minute later, Luke Mistelbacher responded to pull the Wheat Kings within one.<\/p>\n

The third period was tightly contested and nearly scoreless. With Filip Ruzicka on the bench for the extra attacker, Landon Amrhein found the empty net and sealed the win for Calgary. Calgary outshot Brandon 51-36, with Eric Tu making 35 saves.<\/p>\n

The series takes Wednesday off before resuming in Virden at Tundra Oil & Gas Place on Thursday, Apr. 2.\u00a0\u00a0Game time is 7:00 p.m. CST\/6:00 p.m. MT.\u00a0\u00a0Game 5, if necessary, is scheduled for the following night on Friday, Apr. 3. All games are available to stream for free on Victory+.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SERIES SCHEDULE:<\/b>\u00a0Best-of-Seven Round 1 series a 2-3-2 format.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Game 4<\/td>\nThursday, April 2<\/td>\n6:00 p.m.<\/td>\nTundra Oil & Gas Place, Virden<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game 5*<\/td>\nFriday, April 3<\/td>\n6:30 p.m.<\/td>\nTundra Oil & Gas Place, Virden<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game 6*<\/td>\nSunday, April 5<\/td>\n5:00 p.m.<\/td>\nScotiabank Saddledome, Calgary<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game 7*<\/td>\nTuesday, April 7<\/td>\n7:00 p.m.<\/td>\nScotiabank Saddledome, Calgary<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

*Indicates if necessary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virden, MB\u00a0\u2013\u00a0The Calgary Hitmen were in Virden, Manitoba for Game 3 of their first-round series, earning a 3-1 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings and pushing them to the brink of elimination. Andrei Molgachev opened the scoring late in the first period, giving Calgary the early lead heading into the second. The game remained scoreless…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":74318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[693],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-74317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-693","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2026\/04\/01023750\/QO3A1171-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":74316,"date":"2026-03-31T16:36:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T20:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/?p=74316"},"modified":"2026-03-31T16:36:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T20:36:59","slug":"preview-game-3-vs-brandon-03-31-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/article\/preview-game-3-vs-brandon-03-31-26","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW: Game 3 vs Brandon | 03.31.26"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":73337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[693],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-74316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-693","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2025\/09\/19162157\/IMG_4225.jpeg",2560,1440,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":1022931,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":74309,"date":"2026-03-30T13:12:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/?p=74309"},"modified":"2026-03-30T13:12:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:12:39","slug":"recap-hitmen-take-2-0-series-lead-in-6-5-overtime-win-over-wheat-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/article\/recap-hitmen-take-2-0-series-lead-in-6-5-overtime-win-over-wheat-kings","title":{"rendered":"RECAP: Hitmen Take 2-0 Series Lead in 6-5 Overtime Win Over Wheat Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calgary, AB\u00a0\u2013<\/strong> The Calgary Hitmen took a 2-0 series lead over the Brandon Wheat Kings on Sunday night with their second consecutive overtime win.<\/p>\n

Calgary opened the scoring in the first period with goals from Kale Dach and Andrei Molgachev to take an early lead. Brandon responded in the second period, shifting momentum with goals from Jimmy Eagan and Grayson Burzynski to tie the game at two.<\/p>\n

Julien Maze restored Calgary\u2019s lead after exiting the penalty box and converting on a stretch pass from Axel Hurtig. However, Brandon surged ahead in the third period, scoring three unanswered goals, two from Luke Mistelbacher and one from Jaxson Jacobson, to make it 53.<\/p>\n

Calgary answered on the power play at 12:53, when Ethan Moore capitalized to bring the Hitmen within one. Then, with 1:11 remaining in regulation, Axel Hurtig tipped in a shot from Julien Maze to tie the game and force overtime.<\/p>\n

In the extra frame, Ethan Moore played hero for the second straight game, scoring the overtime winner at the 10:05 mark.<\/p>\n

Julien Maze earned first star honors with an incredible six-point performance (1G, 5A), tying Pavel Brendl\u2019s franchise record for most points in a playoff game, set during the 1998-99 season.<\/p>\n

The series shifts to Virden, Manitoba\u2019s Tundra Oil & Gas Place this week for the next three games beginning on Tuesday, Mar. 31.\u00a0 Game time is 7:00 p.m. CST\/6:00 p.m. MT.\u00a0 Game 4 is then scheduled for Thursday, Apr. 2 with Game 5, if necessary, the following night on Friday, Apr. 3. All Games are available to stream for free on Victory+.<\/p>\n

\n

SERIES SCHEDULE:<\/strong> Best-of-Seven Round 1 series a 2-3-2 format.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Game 3<\/td>\nTuesday, March 31<\/td>\n6:00 p.m.<\/td>\nTundra Oil & Gas Place, Virden<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game 4<\/td>\nThursday, April 2<\/td>\n6:00 p.m.<\/td>\nTundra Oil & Gas Place, Virden<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game 5*<\/td>\nFriday, April 3<\/td>\n6:30 p.m.<\/td>\nTundra Oil & Gas Place, Virden<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game 6*<\/td>\nSunday, April 5<\/td>\n5:00 p.m.<\/td>\nScotiabank Saddledome, Calgary<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game 7*<\/td>\nTuesday, April 7<\/td>\n7:00 p.m.<\/td>\nScotiabank Saddledome, Calgary<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

*Indicates if necessary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Calgary, AB\u00a0\u2013 The Calgary Hitmen took a 2-0 series lead over the Brandon Wheat Kings on Sunday night with their second consecutive overtime win. Calgary opened the scoring in the first period with goals from Kale Dach and Andrei Molgachev to take an early lead. Brandon responded in the second period, shifting momentum with goals…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":74311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[693],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-74309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-693","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2026\/03\/30130422\/20260329_CGY_vs_BDN_HIT2809_JP.jpg",8018,5348,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":1022930,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":74300,"date":"2026-03-29T12:48:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T16:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/?p=74300"},"modified":"2026-03-29T12:48:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T16:48:50","slug":"preview-game-2-vs-brandon-03-29-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/article\/preview-game-2-vs-brandon-03-29-26","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW: GAME 2 vs BRANDON | 03.29.26"},"content":{"rendered":"

HITMEN HEADLINES:<\/strong> The Calgary Hitmen are back on home ice tonight to host the Brandon Wheat Kings in Game 2 of their Best-of-Seven Eastern Conference Quarter-Final Series.\u00a0 Game time is 7:00 p.m. at Scotiabank Saddledome.\u00a0 It\u2019s Sunday Funday, presented by Brookfield Residential where fans can enjoy $6 food and drink deals all game long, $3 sips and snacks plus Face Painting and the Fun Zone on the West Concourse.\u00a0 Fans can also watch today\u2019s game for FREE on Victory+ or listen on Sportsnet 960 The Fan.\u00a0 The WHL Playoffs are presented by Nutrien.\u00a0 Calgary took the opener Friday night with a thrilling 1-0 triple overtime triumph.\u00a0 Ethan Moore scored the game winner on a pass from Caine Wilke, 5:11 into the third overtime period.\u00a0 Both goaltenders were terrific, making a combined 113 saves.\u00a0 Hitmen netminder Eric Tu turned aside all 49 shots he faced, including a penalty shot, to record his first career WHL Playoff shutout while Wheat Kings goalie Filip Ruzicka stopped 64 shots in a game that lasted 4 hours and 24 minutes, ending at 11:27 p.m. local time.<\/p>\n

\n

SERIES SCHEDULE:<\/strong> The Hitmen have home-ice advantage in the Eastern Conference Quarter Final with the Best-of-Seven Round 1 series a 2-3-2 format.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Game 1<\/td>\nHitmen 1 Wheat Kings 0 OT3<\/td>\n<\/td>\nCGY leads the series 1-0.<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game 2<\/td>\nSunday, March 29<\/td>\n7:00 p.m.<\/td>\nScotiabank Saddledome, Calgary<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game 3<\/td>\nTuesday, March 31<\/td>\n6:00 p.m.<\/td>\nTundra Oil & Gas Place, Virden<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game 4<\/td>\nThursday, April 2<\/td>\n6:00 p.m.<\/td>\nTundra Oil & Gas Place, Virden<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game 5*<\/td>\nFriday, April 3<\/td>\n6:30 p.m.<\/td>\nTundra Oil & Gas Place, Virden<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game 6*<\/td>\nSunday, April 5<\/td>\n5:00 p.m.<\/td>\nScotiabank Saddledome, Calgary<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game 7*<\/td>\nTuesday, April 7<\/td>\n7:00 p.m.<\/td>\nScotiabank Saddledome, Calgary<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
*Indicates if necessary.\u00a0 Times listed in Mountain Time.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

GAME 1 STATS: <\/strong>Ethan Moore led all Hitmen with seven shots on goal Friday night.\u00a0 Julien Maze and Kale Dach were next with five shots each.\u00a0 Luke Mistelbacher topped the Wheat Kings with seven shots.\u00a0 In the face-off circle, Calgary went a combined 68-117 on draws, clicking at 58.1%.\u00a0 Harrison Lodewyk (25), Kale Dach (16), Ethan Moore (13) and Andrei Molgachev (10) all won at least 10 face-offs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

BEEN A WHILE: <\/strong>Friday\u2019s Game 1 was Calgary\u2019s first 1-0 playoff result in nearly 20 years.\u00a0 On April 8, <\/sup>1998, the Hitmen blanked Swift Current 1-0 in a series clinching Game 7 with that contest needing only 60 minutes.\u00a0 Friday game was also the longest home ice playoff game in franchise history at 105:11.\u00a0 Overall it was less than a minute shy of breaking the club record set by Jordan Krestanovich who scored 6:05 into triple overtime on the road in Kamloops May 5, 1999.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

STREAKIN\u2019:<\/strong> Dating back to the regular season, Ethan Moore (2g, 1a) has scored in back-to-back games.\u00a0 Ben MacBeath (1g, 9a) saw his career high tying six-game point streak end in Game 1 while two-game point streaks for Blake Vanek (2g, 3a) and Ty Meunier (1g, 2a) were also halted.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

FAST FACTS: <\/strong>The Hitmen are the #4 seed in the Eastern Conference after an 85-point regular season which saw the club post a record of 38-21-8-1.\u00a0 Brandon is the #5 seed, finishing their schedule with 82 points following a 40-26-2-0 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

PLAYOFF DEBUT:\u00a0 <\/strong>A total of 10 Hitmen played their first ever Western Hockey League playoff game on Friday night in the series opener.\u00a0 The Hitmen have a combined 118 games of playoff experience while Brandon has 132.\u00a0 Harrison Lodewyk leads Calgary with 22 post-season games played.\u00a0 Ethan Moore with 17 and Julien Maze with 13 round out the top three.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

REGULAR SEASON VS. BRANDON:\u00a0<\/strong>Calgary picked up five of a possible eight points during their regular season series with the Wheat Kings, posting a record of 2-1-1-0.\u00a0 The road team won all four games with no shortage of scoring as the two clubs combined for 28 goals with each team scoring 14 times.\u00a0 Ben MacBeath (6a) led the Hitmen with six points while Julien Maze (3g, 1a), Andrei Molgachev (2g, 2a), Ethan Moore (2g, 2a) and Caine Wilke (1g, 3a) all tallied four points each.\u00a0 Jaxon Jacobson (4g, 3a) was the top performer for Brandon with seven points.\u00a0 Luke Mistelbacher (1g, 5a) was next with six.<\/p>\n

\n

2025-26 SERIES RECAP<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n

Nov. 2\/25 in BDN:<\/u> Hitmen 3 Wheat Kings 1\u2026Calgary scored once in every period getting a goal and assist each from Kale Dach and Brandon Gorzynski.<\/p>\n

Dec. 19\/25 in CGY<\/u>: Wheat Kings 3 Hitmen 2 OT\u2026Calgary erased a 2-0 deficit before Joby Baumuller scored the winner 2:25 into extra time.<\/p>\n

Feb. 6\/26 at BDN<\/u>: Hitmen 5 Wheat Kings 4\u2026The Hitmen erased a 4-1 third period deficit.<\/p>\n

Mar. 11\/26 in CGY<\/u>: Wheat Kings 6 Hitmen 4\u2026Brandon broke a 3-3 third period tie scoring twice in the first 11 minutes.<\/p>\n

\n

INSIDE THE SERIES<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n

Shots on Goal: CGY 153\u00a0 BDN 88\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Power Plays: CGY 8-15 (53.3%)\u00a0\u00a0 BDN 2-9 (22.2%)<\/p>\n

\n

PLAYOFF DATA: <\/strong>This is the eighth time in WHL history but just the first time in 11 seasons the Hitmen and Wheat Kings will square off in a playoff series.\u00a0 Brandon has won four times with Calgary taking three.<\/p>\n

1998: <\/strong>BDN 4 CGY 1 Rd3: Wheat Kings were led by Stefan Cherneski with nine points (6g, 3a).\u00a0 Brad Mehalko topped the Hitmen with seven points (1g, 6a).<\/p>\n

2005:<\/strong> BDN 4 CGY 3 Rd1: Lance Monych (5g, 2a) & Derek LeBlanc (4g, 3a) led Brandon with seven points each.\u00a0 Ryan Getzlaf led Calgary with nine (3g, 6a).<\/p>\n

2007:<\/strong> CGY 4 BDN 2 Rd2: Derek LeBlanc was on the Hitmen this time and led the way with 11 points (5g, 6a).\u00a0 Among his work was a new WHL record for fastest overtime goal, scoring 8 seconds into Game 5.\u00a0 Codey Burki was the top Wheat King with six points (5g, 1a).<\/p>\n

2009:<\/strong> CGY 4 BDN 0 Rd3: Kris Foucault was Calgary\u2019s top performer with seven points (3g, 4a).\u00a0 Matt Calvert led Brandon with five points (32g, 3a).<\/p>\n

2010:<\/strong> CGY 4 BDN 0 Rd3: Brandon Kozun led the way for Calgary with eight points (2g, 6a).\u00a0 Matt Calvert propelled Brandon with five points (4g, 1a).<\/p>\n

2012:<\/strong> BDN 4 CGY 1 Rd1: Alessio Bertaggia drove the Wheat Kings attack with six points (3g, 3a).\u00a0 Collin Bowman led Calgary with five points (5a).<\/p>\n

2015:<\/strong> BDN 4 CGY 1 Rd3: John Quenneville pilled up 10 points (6g, 4a) to lead Brandon.\u00a0 Adam Tambellini notched five (4g, 1a) for the Hitmen.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

PLAYOFF RECORD: <\/strong>Calgary has a lifetime playoff record of 144-120.\u00a0 The Hitmen competed in 48 series prior to this one.\u00a0 They have won 28 and lost 20.\u00a0 Calgary is 34-24 all-time in post-season overtime games.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

2025 PLAYOFF REWIND: <\/strong>Last season the Hitmen grabbed Game 2 in their first round series with Saskatoon, skating to a 5-1 win over the visiting Blades to take a 2-0 series lead.\u00a0 Tanner Howe and Brandon Gorzynski led the charge with a goal and an assist each while Ben Kindel chipped in a pair of assists.\u00a0 Calgary outshot Saskatoon 48-23 and received a 22-save performance from goaltender Anders Miller.<\/p>\n

\n

MAYFAIR DIAGNOSTICS INJURY REPORT:\u00a0<\/strong>Rylan Ng (Upper Body, Indefinitely).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

UPCOMING GAMES:<\/strong>\u00a0 The series shifts to Virden, Manitoba\u2019s Tundra Oil & Gas Place this week for the next three games beginning on Tuesday, Mar. 31.\u00a0 Game time is 7:00 p.m. CST\/6:00 p.m. MT.\u00a0 Game 4 is then scheduled for Thursday, Apr. 2 with Game 5, if necessary, the following night on Friday, Apr. 3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HITMEN HEADLINES: The Calgary Hitmen are back on home ice tonight to host the Brandon Wheat Kings in Game 2 of their Best-of-Seven Eastern Conference Quarter-Final Series.\u00a0 Game time is 7:00 p.m. at Scotiabank Saddledome.\u00a0 It\u2019s Sunday Funday, presented by Brookfield Residential where fans can enjoy $6 food and drink deals all game long, $3…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":74222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[693],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-74300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-693","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2026\/03\/14153432\/HM_Game_Preview288.jpg",2560,1440,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":1022930,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":74295,"date":"2026-03-28T05:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T09:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/?p=74295"},"modified":"2026-03-28T05:09:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T09:09:00","slug":"game-one-recap-hitmen-win-in-triple-ot-making-for-the-second-longest-game-in-hitmen-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hitmen\/article\/game-one-recap-hitmen-win-in-triple-ot-making-for-the-second-longest-game-in-hitmen-history","title":{"rendered":"GAME ONE RECAP: Hitmen Win In Triple OT Making For the Second Longest Game in Hitmen History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calgary, AB\u00a0\u2013<\/b>\u00a0The 2026 WHL Playoffs opened in historic fashion on Friday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome, with the Calgary Hitmen delivering a thrilling triple overtime victory in game one of their first-round series with the Brandon Wheat Kings.<\/p>\n

After a tightly contested and scoreless 60 minutes of regulation, the game extended to a third extra frame to determine the winner. Goaltender Eric Tu was outstanding in his first career playoff start, turning aside 49 shots to record the shutout. His performance included a crucial stop on a penalty shot in the second overtime period, preserving the deadlock.<\/p>\n

\n

ERIC TU WITH THE BIG SAVE ON A PENALTY SHOT IN DOUBLE OT!! \ud83d\ude2e@WHLHitmen<\/a> | #WHLPlayoffs<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa| @victoryplustv<\/a>
\ud83d\udd17| https:\/\/t.co\/7aGiXyvkDr<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/3YvJsL2bLU<\/a><\/p>\n

— Western Hockey League (@TheWHL) March 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n