PATRICK SHINES ON ST. PATRICK’S DAY!
Regina, SK. — Nolan Patrick picked a good time to return to the Brandon Wheat Kings lineup.
The 16-year old Winnipeg product, who had missed the club’s previous twelve games with an upper body injury, scored two goals Tuesday night in helping the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a 4-1 victory over the Pats in Regina.
The win – the Wheat Kings fifth straight – moves Brandon four points up on the Kelowna Rockets in the battle for the 2015 Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy that goes to the Western Hockey League’s regular season champion.
“Good to have him back, and good to have John Quenneville back as well. As is the case, things don’t just instantly revert back to where you’d like them to be,” Brandon general manager and coach Kelly McCrimmon said on CKLQ’s post-game show. “I does take a little bit of time to get everybody settled in. We changed lines to make it work with the guys returning to our lineup…lots of positives but still work to do.”
After trading goals in the first and battling through a scoreless second, captain peter Quenneville and Patrick – with his second of the game – fired goals 36 seconds apart in the third to snap the tie as the Wheat Kings improved to 52-11-4-3 on the season.
Morgan Klimchuk, in what may have been his final game at the Brandt Centre in Regina, added a goal and an assist for the Wheat Kings, who received a 24-save performance from second star Jordan Papirny. Eleven of those stops came in the third period when he made a number of key saves to preserve the win.
Veteran defenceman Eric Roy meanwhile played in his 320th career game Tuesday, moving past Lance Monych and into sole posession of second place on the club’s all time list for games played. Only Dwayne Gylywoychuk (323) has played more.
The Wheat Kings will now close out the 2014-15 regular season with a home and home weekend series with the Warriors, beginning Friday night in Moose Jaw.
Kelowna meanwhile will host Seattle Wednesday night before taking on the last place Vancouver Giants in a 2-game weekend series.
Tickets to Saturday’s game at Westman Place between the Wheat Kings and Warriors, as well as Brandon’s first two playoff home games are on sale now at the Keystone Centre box office, by calling 726-3555 or online at keystonecentre.com
