Prince George, BC (CKLQ) – Stelio Mattheos (1G-3A), Linden McCorrister (1G-2A) and Connor Gutenberg (1G-1A) carried the mail for Brandon in a 5-4 win over the Prince George Cougars on Tuesday night.
It was a quick start for the Brandon Wheat Kings who shuffled the lines for Tuesday night’s game. The new 1st and 2nd lines had a ton of energy out of the gate and the Wheat Kings had several chances early on.
However, it was the Cougars who would open the scoring on the powerplay. Cole Moberg fired a point shot past Ethan Kruger, who was making his 3rd career start.
PG would make it 2-0 midway through the period when Matej Toman beat Kruger through a screen. Despite being down 2-0 the Wheat Kings would keep pushing and get a goal of their own to cut the lead to one. Luka Burzan beat Taylor Gauthier on a broken odd-man rush for his 9th tally of the year.
With less than 0:20 left in the period, the Cougars got a 2on1 rush and Josh Maser made no mistake, beating Kruger on the glove side to restore the two-goal lead at the break.
Brandon came out flying in the 2nd period scoring three unanswered goals to take their first lead of the hockey game.
Connor Gutenberg opened the floodgates with his 6th of the season on the powerplay while Linden McCorrister followed up with his 3rd of the season from an impossible angle.
With less than 5:00 to go in the 2nd, Braden Schneider followed up on a Brandon odd-man rush, took a pass and snapped home his 2nd of the night to give Brandon the 4-3 lead at the intermission.
A scary moment at the end of the 2nd for the Cougars as starting goaltender Taylor Gauthier was run into by one of his teammates and went down in a heap. After being tended to by the trainer, Gauthier left the game and would be replaced by Isaiah DiLaura. DiLaura would finish the game for the Cougars making 16 saves in relief.
Brandon opened up a two-goal lead in the third when Stelio Mattheos beat DiLaura along the ice for his team-leading 14th goal of the season.
Prince George would add another powerplay goal in the third period but it was a close as they would get. Ethan Kruger earned his first career WHL victory by turning aside 10 shots in the third period and 26 on the night.
The Wheat Kings win snaps a five-game losing streak and gives them their first victory of this road trip (1-2-1-1). Next up, a date with the Kamloops Blazers on Friday night (9:00 MB time on QCountry Radio)
SCORING SUMMARY
1st PERIOD
PG – Cole Moberg (4) (Schoettler, Mikhalchuk) 5:24 PPG
PG – Matej Toman (2) (Mikhalchuk, Maser) 12:07
BWK – Luka Burzan (9) (Gutenberg, Thorpe) 15:01
PG – Josh Maser (4) (Unassisted) 18:41
Shots: 9-9
2nd PERIOD
BWK – Connor Gutenberg (6) (Mattheos, Wytinck) 4:14 PPG
BWK – Linden McCorrister (3) (McCartney, Mattheos) 11:32
BWK – Braden Schneider (2) (McCorrister, Mattheos) 14:29
Shots: 18-11 Brandon
3rd PERIOD
BWK – Stelio Mattheos (14) (McCorrister, Hartje) 10:14
PG – Vladislav Mikhalchuk (2) (Moberg, Upper) 11:20 PPG
Final Shots: 44-30 Brandon