A string of goals in the second and third period helped the Brandon Wheat Kings skate a 7-3 home ice over the Prince Albert Raiders at Westoba Place on Saturday night.
Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says Brandon was able to control the game against Prince Albert.
“I thought at times we got out battled a bit in our own zone. They’re a good puck moving team. I thought that we stood around just a little bit. Then when things got tight and at our net front, I thought we got out battled a little bit. It’s a big strong team and we’re going to defend that better.”
Ty Meunier would open the scoring for the Raiders at the 2:33 mark with his fifth goal of the season. The 16-year-old would fire a wrist shot past Carson Bjarnason from the left circle. Luke Moroz and Oli Chenier provided the assists.
Just twenty seconds later, former Minto Rhett Ravndahl would strike back for Brandon. Ravndahl would bury a rebound from Dominik Petr past Dimitri Fortin to send the teddy bears flying in Brandon. Adam Belusko had the secondary helper.
Truitt says the Raiders weren’t able to capture momentum after the lengthy delay for teddy bear clean up.
“You look at early shifts after those breaks and you hope that you get some sort of momentum and things like that. We just didn’t get in on the forecheck hard enough with the possession game that we needed. We didn’t get inside to the goaltender offensively, but your top guns, they’ve got to drive the bus. Our top six have been the producing kind of guys. In difficult games, you rely on your older guys to pull you through and tonight it didn’t happen. The younger guys did their jobs real well here tonight.”
After a mad scramble in front of the Raider net, Matteo Michels would put the puck past Fortin for his 10th goal of the season. Carter Klippenstein and Brady Turko assisted on the play.
The Raiders would tie the game at the 4:49 mark of the second period as Brayden Dube would wire home his 12th goal of the season. Daxon Rudolph picked up the lone assist.
The Wheat Kings would regain the lead at the 14:13 mark of the middle frame. From an extremely sharp angle in the left wing corner, Adam Belusko fired a shot towards the mask of Dimitri Fortin that went off the Raider netminder and in. It was his first career WHL goal. Dominik Petr and Easton Odut picked up the helpers.
Just seconds after a power play expired, Matteo Michels would pick up his 11th goal of the season at the 17:23 mark. Luke Shipley and Joby Baumuller assisted.
The Wheat Kings would extend their lead thanks to a pair of goals in the first 3:07 of the final frame. Brady Turko would bury his fifth goal of the season at the 1:59 mark before Easton Odut would break loose on a breakaway and make no mistake for his third of the season.
That would spell the end of the night for Dimitri Fortin who made 19 saves on 25 Brandon shots. He would be replaced by Steele Bass, who finished the remainder of the contest.
Carter Klippenstein would extend the Brandon lead to five at the 15:24 mark with his fourth goal of the season. Nolan Flamand and Quinn Mantei picked up the helpers.
Beyond that, Bass made 12 saves on the 13 shots he faced.
Truitt says the 16-year-old Bass has a bright future ahead of him in the WHL.
“He did very well. He’s very excited to be here and wants to learn and play with these guys. He’s really set himself up for being a real good teammate. It’s a tough situation for him to go in but I thought that he stood real tall. He was solid, he squared up and swallowed up some pucks with no rebounds. You can see the technical shift in his game which is really good so I really think that he’s going to be a good goaltender in the future.”
On a 2-on-1 late in the third period, Ty Meunier would strike again for his first career multi-goal game in the WHL and sixth of the season. A feed from Luke Moroz set up the goal.
Truitt says Meunier has made incremental improvements throughout the season.
“He’s always been a confident player with the puck, but at the major junior level it was a little bit of a struggle for him when it came to systems and being at the right place at the right time in regarding that type of play. He’s a very gifted, skilled player that’s going to continue to get better and better, which is great. I’ve seen some improvements in his game when it comes to the structure part of it. It’s going to take some time, but offensively, he’s a very good player. As a young player, just like they all are, when they’re 16 years of age, it’s a whole different animal. There’s certain things within the team game that everybody has to improve on, but his natural skill is not in question.”
The Raiders return to action on Tuesday night when they welcome the Moose Jaw Warriors to the Art Hauser Centre.
