Sports stats



WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

Wheat Kings Dominate Raiders in 7-1 Final

March 30, 2021 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


The Wheat Kings got off to another hot start Tuesday night and didn't look back, beating the Prince Albert Raiders 7-1 at Regina's Brandt Centre.

Wheat Kings sniper Ridly Greig got his team ahead just 22 seconds into the game when a pass from Ben McCartney behind the Raiders net found Greig in front of netminder Carter Serhyenko. Greig showed patience as he cut across the ice and roofed a backhand glove side.

At 9:35 into the period, McCartney would light the lamp himself on a Wheat Kings power play, standing right next to Serhyenko's crease. Nolan Ritchie threaded a pass across the front of the net to McCartney who put it home and the Wheat Kings up by a pair.

"I was just on the power play and Rids (Greig) made a nice seam play to Ritch (Nolan Ritchie) and I Ritch I think was trying to find Macker (Lynden McCallum) so I just popped out to the back door and found the puck and just tried my absolute best not to mishandle it and get in into the back of the net".

The next Wheat King to find the scoresheet was the big man Reid Perepeluk who returned to the lineup after sitting out the previous two games with an upper body injury. Perepeluk got in behind the Raiders defence in the second period with a long lead pass from Neithan Salame, collected it and toe-dragged Serhyenko for his second goal of the season just 2:18 into the frame.

At 18:25 in the second, Brett Hyland extended the play with some hard work down low behind the net before getting the puck to Lynden McCallum who scored his seventh goal of the season.

The Raiders would break their drought at 9:56 in the third period when Matthew Culling got a cross ice pass from Spencer Moe on the power play. Kruger, who played an excellent 60 minutes in net, wasn't able to make the transition in time and Culling put it past him breaking his shutout.

With the game well in control and the Wheat Kings on the power play, Brandon defenceman Vinny Iorio scored his second goal of the season on a pretty end-to-end play to make it 5-1 with eight and a half minutes left in the game.

After Iorio's goal and with less than three minutes left in the game, Ty Thorpe potted his first of the season on the power play as well. Four of the Wheat Kings' goals on the evening came with a man advantage after they entered the game with a 27.6% success rate on the power play.

The last goal of the game came on a late power play as well, beginning with a shot from Perepeluk on the right side of the ice. Serhyenko gave up a long rebound that found Riley Ginnell who put home his second goal of the season with just 2.9 seconds left in the match. The shot on net

Wheat Kings head coach Don MacGillivray said he liked the team his energy brought from the first whistle.

"I liked the start of the game, I thought we started really well. I thought we came out with lots of jump and lots of energy in the first period and I thought we played really well."

The game was a much different story for the Wheat Kings than their previous outing, when they found themselves trailing by two goals to the Swift Current Broncos in the second period. But with the Raiders missing some of their top talent like defenceman Kaiden Guhle and forward Ozzy Wiesblatt, the Wheat Kings knew that a historically tough opponent would be operating without some of their top guns.

"There was a lot of emotion in the game and I think sometimes that's difficult when the other team doesn't have their best players," said MacGillivray. "It's hard to get into that mindset that it's not going to be an easy game and we talked about P.A. and how they play. They're a hard, physical team that plays hard and we hadn't beat them last time, so we wanted to make sure we came out with a good start and that's what we did".

Vinny Iorio shared a similar mindset as MacGillivray when asked what the feeling was like heading into a game against the Raiders. After McCartney and Perepeluk both dropped the mitts early in the opening period, Iorio said he liked the intensity his team brought to the ice.

"It's really good to see the guys fight, I mean fighting's slowly, slowly dripping out away from (the game) but the guys were really happy for Perps and Carts and I think it just boosted our team morale and it helped us."

Both McCartney and Perepeluk would end up collecting a 'Gordie Howe hat trick' on the evening, registering a goal, an assist and a fighting major.

"Carts got a Gordie Howe in the first period, and he was in the box for 5 minutes," joked Iorio.

"P.A.'s a real good hockey club and they're well coached," said McCartney. "Obviosuly it's a great feeling getting the win tonight, they're always battles but everyone in the locker room is excited and we live for those types of games."

The win is the Wheat Kings' fourth in a row, dating back to last Wednesday when they beat the Moose Jaw Warriors 8-2 on March 24th. The schedule for the seven East Division teams playing in the #SubwayWHLHub is games every other day with the odd back-to-back pair or a few two day breaks in between playing. When asked if the frequency of games has worn him down yet after the first nine games of the season, McCartney says he's got no complaints.

"No not really. (Wheat Kings Athletic Therapist) Will's been doing a really good job at keeping our workouts nice and working a lot on mobility. I haven't had any problems so far."

"I really enjoy it. I've always been a guy who likes playing game after game. This whole having no time to think about the game because we have a day off and then are getting right back at it, it's just something to look forward to. It's a quick turnaround, and it's something I really enjoy."

McCartney and the Wheat Kings won't have to wait long for their next game as they take a one day break and are back on the ice against the Regina Pats on Thursday at 9 PM Manitoba time.

Check out the Brandon Wheat Kings Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from March 30, 2021


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Brandon Wheat Kings Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central