Americans fall 5-3 to Brandon
Brandon is king of the road in the Western Hockey League.
The Wheat Kings, ranked third in this week’s CHL poll, are undefeated at 5-0-0-0 on the road after handing the Tri-City Americans a 5-3 loss before a Friday night crowd of 4,016 at Toyota Center.
“It’s hard to win on the road,” Brandon coach Kelly McCrimmon said. “I thought Tri-City played really well. They fought back to tie it, but we were able to hang on for the win. We played well to get the two points tonight.”
Trailing 3-2 midway through the third period, Tri-City’s Juuso Välimäki tipped the puck past Brandon goalie Jordan Papirny to tie the score at 12:41, but the Wheat Kings would add two more before it was all said and done.
“I thought we played well in the third against an explosive team,” Tri-City coach Mike Williamson said. “I thought we made some mental mistakes in the second against a team that made us pay for it. You can’t make mistakes against a team like that.”
Rihards Bukarts scored his second of the night at 14:51 to give Brandon a 4-3 lead, while Jayce Hawryluk scored into a empty net with 25 seconds left to secure the win and end a three-game losing streak to the Americans.
After a 1-1 tie through 20 minutes, the Americans took a 2-1 lead at 9:15 of the second on on a goal by Parker Bowles. Brandon made it 2-2 with a short-handed tally by John Quenneville at 13:05, and Bukarts made it 3-2 with a power-play goal 3 minutes later.
It didn’t take long for the Wheat Kings (8-1-0-2, 18 points) to find the net as Stelio Matteos beat Evan Sarthou just 2 minutes into the game. Sarthou finished with 29 saves.
The Americans (4-6-1-0, 9 points) answered 2:17 later with a goal by Tyler Sandhu, his fifth of the season.
NEXT UP: Tri-City hosts the Portland Winterhawks at 7:05 p.m. today.
MILESTONE: Americans defenseman Parker Wotherspoon played his 150th WHL game Friday.
POURING IT ON: Brandon has outshot its opponents in all 11 games. The Wheat Kings, who had a 34-24 shot advantage Friday, are averaging 38.9 shots per game while allowing 23.6.
Wheat Kings 5, Americans 3
Brandon | 1 | 2 | 2 | — | 4 |
Tri-City | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | 3 |
First — 1, Bdn, Mattheos 2 (Bukarts), 2:00. 2, TC, Sandhu 5 (McCue, Wotherspoon), 4:17. Penalties — Coghlan, TC (tripping), 6:50; Carlo, TC (interference), 12:55; TC bench (too many men, served by Vickerman), 18:33.
Second — 3, TC, Bowles 5 (Carlo, Olson), 9:15. 4, Bdn, Quenneville 2 (Patrick), 13:05 (sh). 5, Bdn, Bukarts 2 (Kaspick, Waltz), 16:10 (pp). Penalties — Campbell, Bdn (holding), 6:12; Wotherspoon, TC (roughing), 8:04; Shmry, Bdn (interference), 9:03; Brandon bench (too many men, served by Mattheos), 11:12; Provorov, Bdn (delay of game), 13:13; TC bench (too many men, served by Vickerman), 15:06; Bukarts, Bdn (tripping), 19:50.
Third — 6, TC, Välimäki 2 (Geekie, Vickerman), 12:41. 7, Bdn, Bukarts 3 (Campbell, Erkamps), 14:51. 8, Hawryluk 9 (Patrick), 19:35 (en). Penalties — None.
Shots — Bdn 14-10-10 — 34. TC 5-10-9 — 24. Power plays — Bdn 1-5. TC 0-5. Goalies — Bdn, Papirny 6-2-1-0 (24 shots-21 saves). TC, Sarthou 4-5-1-0 (33-29). Referees — Brett Iverson and Nick Swaine. A. 4,016.
Annie Fowler: 509-582-1574; afowler@tricityherald.com; Twitter: @TCHIceQueen
This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 10:22 PM with the headline "Americans fall 5-3 to Brandon."