Photo by Brandi Crowe
Brandon, MB (CKLQ) – Stelio Mattheos (4A), Luka Burzan (1G-1A) and Cole Reinhardt (2G) combined for eight points as the Brandon Wheat Kings earned a 5-4 overtime victory over the Kootenay ICE on Friday night.
In the first of two meetings this weekend, the Wheat Kings broke the ice early. Prince Albert, SK native Braden Schneider opened the scoring as he jumped into the rush and took a feed from Ridly Greig making no mistake for his 6th of the year.
The ICE lead 11-7 on the shot clock after one but did have a powerplay of chances in the frame, both of which were killed off.
There were goals aplenty in the 2nd frame as the ICE took a 2-1 lead with two goals in the first 6:18 of the period. First, Brad Ginnell was gifted a puck off the stick of Jiri Patera from below the goal line and made no mistake in the open net.
Just moments later, former Wheat King Chase Hartje snapped home a powerplay marker to put the ICE in front.
The Wheat Kings responded just 0:26 later as Cole Reinhardt tipped in a point shot from Stelio Mattheos for his 10th of the year.
Luka Burzan would give the Wheat Kings the lead but a 2nd powerplay goal, this time from Jaeger White sent the teams to the locker room tied at three.
Each team would exchange third-period goals and for the second time this season, these two teams would head to overtime.
Midway through the extra-frame, Braden Schneider set up Ridly Greig who popped the water-bottle and sent the 3,639 fans at Westoba Place home with a smile on their face.
Both goalies were busy on the night. Jiri Patera picked up win number 14 on the year with 35 saves while Jesse Makaj kicked aside 32 shots in the losing effort.
The 2nd overall pick in the 2018 WHL Bantam Draft, Carson Lambos played his first game in his home province. The younger brother of Wheat Kings rookie Jonny Lambos finished the night +1 with one shot on goal.
These two teams will meet again on Saturday night. Game time is 7:30 at Westoba Place. (7:00 on QCountry Radio.)
SCORING SUMMARY
1st PERIOD
BWK – Braden Schneider (6) (Greig) 10:56
Shots: 11-7 Kootenay
2nd PERIOD
KTN – Brad Ginnell (10) (Unassisted) 1:13
KTN – Chase Hartje (5) (Bodak, Schellenberg) 6:18 PPG
BWK – Cole Reinhardt (10) (Mattheos, Chizen) 6:44
BWK – Luka Burzan (26) (Mattheos) 12:09
KTN – Jaeger White (18) (Krebs, Creta) 13:03 PPG
Shots: 14-13 Kootenay
3rd PERIOD
KTN – Davis Murray (8) (Smallwood, Patrick) 3:20
BWK – Cole Reinhardt (11) (Mattheos, Burzan) 10:54 PPG
Shots: 16-14 Brandon
OVERTIME
BWK – Ridly Greig (9) (Schneider, Mattheos) 1:56
Final Shots: 41-27 Kootenay