Photo by Brandi Pollock

Lethbridge, AB (CKLQ) – The Brandon Wheat Kings ran into a hot goaltender on Tuesday night falling 2-1 to the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

The first period was dead even as both teams had chances. The Hurricanes opened the scoring on the powerplay as Jaden Joseph slipped one past Jiri Patera. That goal was the 4th powerplay goal scored by the Hurricanes vs Brandon this season.

With less than 2:00 to go in the opening period, Stelio Mattheos would get Brandon on the board on the powerplay as well. His drive to the crease opened up the five-hole of Carl Tetachuk where he slipped home his 12th of the season.

Tetachuk, who was making his first WHL start made 33 saves on the night for his first career victory.

In the second the Wheat Kings found themselves in penalty trouble. Three straight Hurricanes powerplays gave them all the momentum in the latter half of the period. On their fourth chance, Taylor Ross beat Jiri Patera on a mad scramble to restore the one-goal lead heading to the intermission.

The Wheat Kings fired everything but the kitchen sink at Tetachuk in the third period, outshooting the Hurricanes 16-3 but could not get the equalizer they needed to send the game to overtime.

With the loss, Brandon drops to 6-2-2-1 on the season while the Hurricanes move to 6-4-1-2.

The Wheat Kings will continue this road trip tomorrow night in Cranbrook with their first meeting of the season against the Kootenay ICE. (8:00 MB time on QCountry Radio)

SCORING SUMMARY

1st PERIOD

LETH – Jaden Joseph (5) (Merezhko, Barlage) 17:19 PPG
BWK – Stelio Mattheos (12) (Wytinck, Gutenberg) 19:01 PPG

Shots: 11-11

2nd PERIOD

LETH – Taylor Ross (9) (Addison, Cozens) 18:08 PPG

Shots: 13-8 Lethbridge

3rd PERIOD

No Scoring

Final Shots: 35-27 Brandon