Photo courtesy of eBrandon
The Brandon Wheat Kings turned in their best performance of the season in a 3-0 win over the Vancouver Giants on Friday night in front of 3,208 fans at Westoba Place.
Jiri Patera kicked aside all 40 shots he faced for his 2nd career WHL shutout, while Ben McCartney, Luka Burzan and Braden Schneider all found the back of the net to help Brandon snap a two-game losing streak.
"We talked all week that our best players have to be our best players for us to win hockey games," said Head Coach Dave Lowry. "We got a great goaltending performance from Jiri tonight, our best guys were emotionally invested in the game and I think we did a lot of good things."
The Wheat Kings, who had failed to win on home ice in their first two tries were handed nine powerplays on Friday night, two of which they converted on.
Meanwhile, a penalty-filled night for both sides meant the Wheat King penalty killers were a busy bunch, forced to kills seven minor penalties.
"We definitely got away with one tonight, we took way too many stick infractions," added Lowry. "As the year goes on those types of penalties tend to be the ones that hurt you. If your goaltender is on and he’s your best penalty killer you have a chance to win a game and that was the case tonight."
Brandonite Trent Miner made his home ice debut tonight, making 29 saves in the losing effort. The Giants drop to 3-3-0-0 on the year and will continue this Eastern Division road swing in Winnipeg on Saturday night.
The Wheat Kings improve to 2-3-0-0 on the season with the victory and will have to quickly reset as the Edmonton Oil Kings roll into Westoba Place on Saturday night. (7:30 puck drop)
SCORING SUMMARY
1st PERIOD
BWK – Ben McCartney (3) (Burzan) 19:00
Shots: 15-12 Vancouver
2nd PERIOD
BWK – Luka Burzan (4) (Greig, Wytinck) 8:22 PPG
Shots: 13-9 Vancouver
3rd PERIOD
BWK – Braden Schneider (1) (Greig, Nychuk) 10:56 PPG
Final Shots: 40-32 Vancouver
