Photo by eBrandon
The Brandon Wheat Kings opened up the 2019 WHL pre-season with an impressive 5-0 shutout win over the Winnipeg ICE on Friday night at Westoba Place.
The Wheat Kings scored three powerplay goals and had multi-point nights from six different players on route to the first "win" of the season.
Ty Thorpe scored twice, while Connor Gutenberg (1G-1A), Nolan Ritchie (1G-1A) and Jonny Hooker rounded out the scoring for Brandon. Caiden Daley (2A), Cole Reinhardt (2A) and Vinny Iorio (2A) all found their names peppered across the scoresheet as well.
Ethan Kruger started the game and made 19 saves through forty minutes, while Connor Ungar came in for the third period and kicked aside all 16 shots he faced in the final frame.
Penalties were a key storyline on the night. The officials handed out a combined 13 powerplays on the night. Brandon finished 3/6 while Winnipeg failed to convert on any of their seven chances.
These two teams will do it all again on Saturday night in Portage at Stride Place. (7:00 puck drop, 6:30 broadcast on QCountry FM)
BWK Line Combos vs Winnipeg
Hooker-Greig-Chiasson
Dube-Gutenberg-Thorpe
Hyland-Ritchie-Reinhardt
Sekundiak-Hagan-Daley
Zayat-Schneider
Salame-Lambos
Hammett-Iorio
SCORING SUMMARY
1st PERIOD
BWK – Ty Thorpe (1) (Daley, Sekundiak) 9:09 PPG
BWK – Connor Gutenberg (1) (Daley, Iorio) 10:17 PPG
Shots: 18-6 Brandon
2nd PERIOD
BWK – Ty Thorpe (2) (Iorio, Gutenberg) 2:26 PPG
BWK – Nolan Ritchie (1) (Reinhardt, Salame) 16:51
Shots: 13-8 Winnipeg
3rd PERIOD
BWK – Johnny Hooker (1) (Ritchie, Reinhardt) 7:31
Final Shots: 35-34 Winnipeg.
