Photo Credit: Chad Baker
Portland, OR (CKLQ) – A night that started so promising for the Brandon Wheat Kings quickly turned ugly as they dropped their 5th in a row, 4-3 to the Portland Winterhawks Sunday night.
The Wheat Kings came out flying, scoring three goals in the first period. Former Winterhawk Evan Weinger scored twice, and Ty Lewis added another as Brandon looked like they had finally found their offensive touch.
Whatever Portland Head Coach Mike Johnston said to his team at the first intermission worked, as they responded with a three goal period of their own. Joakim Blichfeld, Brendan De Jong and Lane Gillis scored 8:09 apart to send the fans at the Moda Centre into a frenzy.
The Winterhawks would complete the comeback on the powerplay late in the third as Alex Overhardt tipped home a point shot on a perfectly drawn up faceoff play to seal the game.
Altona, MB native Cole Kehler looked shaky in the opening frame but settled in to make 23 saves for the win while Logan Thompson faced 40 shots for the 2nd straight night, he made 36 saves in the loss.
The loss drops Brandon to 0-3-1-0 on this US Division road trip. They will try to get back into the win column on Tuesday night as they head to Seattle to take on the Thunderbirds. (9:05 MB start on QCountry Radio.
SCORING SUMMARY
1st PERIOD
BWK – Evan Weinger (21) (Gutenberg, Shearer) 8:41 PPG
BWK – Evan Weinger (22) (Unassisted) 11:50 SHG
BWK – Ty Lewis (26) (Unassisted) 18:55
Shots: 12-10 Brandon
2nd PERIOD
POR – Joakim Blichfeld (16) (DeJong) 4:43
POR – Brendan DeJong (2) (S.McKenzie, Overhardt) 5:55
POR – Lane Gillis (3) (Quigley, Newkirk) 12:52
Shots: 13-8 Portland
3rd PERIOD
POR – Alex Overhardt (12) (Jokiharju, Cholowski) 13:48 PPG
Final Shots: 40-26
