Zimmer The Hero in Prince Albert

Photo by Mark Peterson Media
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Prince Albert, SK – The Brandon Wheat Kings trailed on three separate occasions on Friday night, but the resilient bunch came back each time on route to a 5-4 shootout victory over the Raiders.

Tyson Zimmer (1G-1A) who had a two-point night through 65 minutes scored the shootout winner in his first career attempt to help snap Brandon’s three-game losing skid.

“This was a character win for our group tonight,” said Head Coach Don MacGillivray. “We had to battle through a lot. We talked about it in our pre-game meeting, if we get in trouble early we have to stick to the plan and we did just that.”

Due to injuries, Brandon started the game with just 11 forwards and quickly found themselves down to just three lines when Zakhar Polshakov and Ridly Greig left the game with injuries.

Polshakov scored his second goal of the season but crashed awkwardly into the end wall on the follow-through, while Greig was hit awkwardly from behind in the attacking zone.

Nolan Ritchie (1G-1A) and Brett Hyland (1G-2A) each had multi-point nights for the Wheat Kings, who killed off all five Raider powerplays and scored the first powerplay goal by a visiting team at the Art Hauser Centre this season.

“We lost two important pieces, guys that play powerplay and penalty kill,” added MacGillivray. “We had lots of guys step up and play more minutes than they are used to. This was a real good win for our group.”

Ethan Kruger returned the lineup for the first time since October 9th and turned aside 33 shots for his second win of the season.

These two teams will do it all over again on Saturday night at Westoba Place on Halloween Hockey Night presented by Fowler Automotive.

Tickets are on sale now at the Keystone Centre Box Office.