Wheaties Down Hurricanes 8-5 in Brandon

The Hurricanes managed to scored five times, but it wasn't enough against the high-powered offence of the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Peter Quenneville, Tim McGauley, and Morgan Klimchuk each scored twice as the Wheaties beat the Canes 8-5 Friday night in Brandon. The play was very one-sided with most of the action in the Lethbridge zone. The Wheaties ended up out shooting Lethbridge 57-21 when it was all said and done. Stuart Skinner played the majority of the game and was pulled in favour of the Jayden Sittler after Brandon's 7th goal in the 3rd period.

The Canes played the Wheat Kings close on the scoreboard through the first half of the game. Brandon jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead on goals by Braylon Schmyr, and a pair from Peter Quenneville. The Canes got one of those back late in the period when Andrew Nielsen scored his 4th goal of the season to cut the lead to 3-1 after one period. Brandon held a 20-8 edge in shots.

In the second, the Hurricanes came charging back to tie the score. Giorgio Estephan put home his 8th goal of the year on the power play to make it 3-2 game and then former Wheat King Ryley Lindgren tied the game for Lethbridge with his first goal of the season. After that though, Brandon took things over. The Wheaties scored a pair of goals in the final five minutes of the period, both by Tim McGauley to put the home team back in a two goal lead, 5-3 through 40 minutes of play. The Wheaties out shot the Canes 16-8.

In the third, Brandon would keep the offence coming. Former Hurricane Reid Duke put home his 12th goal of the season to make it a 6-3 Wheat Kings lead. A few minutes after that Morgan Klimchuk scored his first of two on the night to put Brandon ahead 7-3. That was it for goalie Stuart Skinner. Jayden Sittler came in for the final 7:43 of the game. Lethbridge managed to get a pair of goals in the final few minutes. Tyler Wong scored his 16th of the season to cut the lead to 7-4 and then a power play goal from Mike Winther right after, his 6th of the year made it a 7-5 game. Brandon though got one more before it was all said and done, Klimchuk's second of the game and Wheaties skated away with an 8-5 victory.

As mentioned the final shots heavily favoured the Eastern Conference-leading Wheat Kings 57-21. The Canes though went 2/4 on the power play and Brandon 0/6. The loss drops the Canes overall record to 10-26-3-3 on the season. They'll play the final game of a quick two game road trip Saturday (Jan. 17) in Moose Jaw.

Thanks,
Pat