The Brandon Wheat Kings defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 3-2 in a Western Hockey League game Friday night at Westman Place in Brandon, Manitoba.
This was the T-Birds’ fifth game on a six-game road trip through the East Division. They are 3-2-0-0 on the trip so far. The T-Birds play the Moose Jaw Warriors on Saturday to finish out the road trip.
Brandon (7-6-3-0) took a 1-0 lead at 8:51 of the first period on an unassisted four-on-four goal from Ty Lewis.
Seattle (6-7-0-1) outshot Brandon 13-9 in the first period.
The T-Birds took a 2-1 lead with two goals in 1:23 early in the third period.
Sami Moilanen set up the T-Birds’ first goal 28 seconds into the third with a good forecheck. Moilanen forced the puck off a Brandon defenseman at the Brandon blue. Moilanen chased the puck to the bottom of the right circle and then backhanded it into the slot to Nolan Volcan. Volcan beat Brandon goalie Jordan Papirny over the blocker with a quick wrist shot to tie the game.
Turner Ottenbreit gave the T-Birds a 2-1 lead at 1:51 of the third on the power play. Ryan Gropp passed the puck from the left circle to Ottenbreit at center ice. Ottenbreit took a wrist shot with traffic in front of Papirny that found the back of the net. Alexander True had the second assist on the go-ahead goal.
Brandon tied the game 2-2 at 3:51 of the third when Stelios Mattheos deflected a Kale Clague shot past Seattle goalie Rylan Toth. .
The Wheat Kings took a 3-2 lead at 9:57 of the third.
The T-Birds had two power plays with under five minutes to go in the game but were not able to get the tying goal. On the second power play they pulled Toth for a six-on-four advantage. Moilanen hit the cross bar from the low left circle just before the third period ended.
Seattle outshot Brandon 38-30 in the game.
Toth made 27 saves on 30 shots and his record is 5-7-0-0.
Papirny made 36 saves on 38 shots and his record is now 5-4-1-0.
Coming home
The T-Birds’ next home game is Friday, Nov. 11, against the Calgary Hitmen at 7:35 p.m. at the ShoWare Center.
Single-game tickets for the 2016-17 season may be purchased online or at the ShoWare Center box office.
Season tickets can be purchased by calling the T-Birds office at 253-239-7825.
SCORING SUMMARY
First period – 1, Brandon, Lewis 9, 8:51. Penalties – Higson, Brn (tripping), 6:53. Bear, Sea (major-spearing), 8:21. Schuldhaus, Sea (cross checking), 12:05. Coulter, Brn (slashing), 13:16. Neuls, Sea (tripping), 14:40. Duke, Brn (high sticking), 20:00.
Second period – No scoring. Penalties – Higson, Brn (roughing), 1:41. Clague, Brn (interference), 6:59. Eansor, Sea (cross checking), 8:44.
Third period – 2, Seattle, Volcan 6 (Moilanen), :28. 3, Seattle, Ottenbreit 2 (Gropp, True), 1:51 (pp). 4, Brandon, Mattheos 7(Clague, Shearer), 3:28. 5, Brandon, Clague 4 (Lewis, Coulter), 9:57. Penalties – Duke, Brn (holding opponents stick), 1:18. Armour, Brn (elbowing), 5:27. Coulter, Brn (holding), 6:51. Kaspick Brn (tripping), 15:40. Lewis, Brn (hooking), 18:14.
Shots on goal – Seattle 13-14-11 38, Brandon 9-12-9 30. Goalies – Seattle, Toth 30 shots-27 saves (5-7-0-0); Brandon, Papirny, 38-36 (5-4-1-0). Power plays – Seattle 1-10; Brandon 0-4. A – 3,640. Referees – Reid Anderson, Karlin Krieger. Linesmen – Kelsey Mahoney, Andrew Stammers
