WHEAT KINGS DOWN THE BLADES
Brandon, MB. – The Brandon Wheat Kings took care of business Tuesday night, defeating the Saskatoon Blades 5-3 before over 4,700 fans at Westoba Place.
Dylan Myskiw turned aside 40 shots and former Blade defenceman Schael Higson scored once and set up another as the Wheat Kings knocked Saskatoon from Western Hockey League playoff contention with two games to play.
With the win, the Wheat Kings improved to 38-27-3-2, good for 81 points and fourth place in the WHL’s Eastern Division.
While Brandon moved to within a point of the third place Regina Pats, who have one game in hand, the win did not clarify the playoff picture as Prince Albert picked up a single point in a 2-1 overtime loss to the league leading Warriors in Moose Jaw.
The Raiders, who play in Regina on Wednesday night, currently sit five points back of the Wheat Kings with three games to play. In order to move past Brandon and into the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, the Raiders would need to win Wednesday and then sweep the Blades in a weekend home and home series. Brandon meanwhile would need to lose both weekend games against the Warriors.
Where Brandon finishes in the final standings will determine who they will meet in the opening round of the WHL playoffs.
As for Tuesday’s game, the Wheat Kings and Blades exchanged goals in the first, before Brandon took the lead for good by outscoring Saskatoon 2-1 in the second.
In the third, Ty Lewis gave Brandon a two goal lead at the seven minute mark, only to have the Blades get back to within one with 7:21 to play. Evan Weinger iced the win less than two minutes later.
Linden McCorrister, the game’s first star, and rookie Marcus Sekundiak rounded out the scoring for the Wheat Kings while Logan Christensen, Max Gerlach and Eric Florchuk scored in a losing cause for the Blades.
Brandon coach David Anning says the game may not have been the best that his club has played in recent days but was happy to get the win.
“We were focused on two points, and at the end of the day, that’s what we came out and accomplished,” he told the Brandon Sun. “It wasn’t our best effort. I thought there were times in the game when we made things a lot harder on ourselves than we needed to. I give Saskatoon a lot of credit. They came out and established a forecheck and made it hard for our back end to move the puck.”
Former Wheat King Braylon Shmyr was held off the scoresheet in what was his final WHL game in Brandon but was selected the game’s third star and the 20-year old veteran took the opportunity to salute the fans that gave him a rousing ovation.
Brandon will now travel to Moose Jaw to meet the Warriors on Saturday night, before returning home to host Moose Jaw on Saturday – Awards Night – presented by The Victoria Inn.
Tickets to the game are on sale at the Keystone Centre box office, by calling (204) 726-3555 or online at keystonecentre.com
Speaking of tickets, they will go on sale at 10am Thursday morning for Brandon’s first two playoff home games, to be played in Dauphin later this month.
