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WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

Wheat Kings Drop Series Opener

March 24, 2018 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


Medicine Hat, AB. - The Medicine Hat Tigers have drawn first blood in their Western Hockey League Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series with the Brandon Wheat Kings.

As former New York Yankee Hall of Famer Yogi Berra once said "It's like déjà vu all over again".

The hometown Tigers built up a 3-0 first period lead, led 6-1 through forty minutes and cruised to a 7-2 victory to grab a 1-0 lead in the best of seven opening round playoff.

Medicine Hat beat the Brandon by the same score in last year's playoff series opener.

The Tigers, who captured the WHL's Central Division title for the second year in a row, took advantage of some defensive breakdowns and a rusty Logan Thompson in this one.

The 20-year old Calgary product, who was Brandon's Most Valuable Player this past season, surrendered six goals on eighteen shots and was pulled after forty minutes of play in what was his first appearance between the pipes since early March.

"It's unfortunate Logan's night started the way it did," Anning told CKLQ's Branden Crowe following the game. "It's one of those things where we expect him to bounce back. It's one game, its going to be a long series and we knew that coming in. We are going to have make sure we respond the right way and Logan will be one of those guys."

Another key Friday night was the play of special teams.

While the Wheat Kings went 1-7 with the man advantage, the Tigers struck for two powerplay goals on four opportunities and added a second period shorthanded goal for good measure.

"I thought we did some things fairly well and I thought we had opportunities," Anning told the Brandon Sun's Perry Bergson. "I didn't think we executed well enough to capitalize on our scoring chances and ultimately our mistakes were costly. I felt that we made some big mistakes and they were able to capitalize on those mistakes. Specialty teams played a factor in the outcome. We needed to be better on the penalty kill and we needed our power play to gain us some momentum and we didn't see that."

"For me, it was a game that they capitalized on our mistakes and we didn't make the most of our chances," he went on to say.

Game 2 in their best-of-seven series will take place in Medicine Hat on Sunday.

Ryan Jevne, Cole Clayton, Mark Rassell, Ryan Chyzowski, Gary Haden, Bryan Lockner and Kristians Rubins scored goals for the Tigers, who were outshot 34-25

Luka Burzan in the first and captain James Shearer with less than two minutes remaining in regulation time, replied for the Wheat Kings, who won three of four regular season meetings between the two teams.

Following Sunday's game, the series will shift to Credit Union Place in Dauphin for games three and four on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

Tickets to both games are on sale at the Keystone Centre box office in Brandon, by calling (204) 726-3555 or online at keystonecentre.com

Unlike last season when Dauphin hosted two first round games, tickets this season will be assigned seating and not rush.

The Wheat Kings, who had the third best home ice record in the WHL this past season (27-6-2-1) have been forced to play their first round playoff home games in Dauphin due to the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair occupying the Keystone Centre this coming week.

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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.

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