Walters Terrific in Wheat Kings' Debut



Nick Walters had three assists in his Wheat Kings' debut
on Friday night

  The first game of the Brandon Wheat Kings post-trade deadline era was a positive one.

  Brandon got goals from six different players in a 6-1 victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors on Friday night, scoring six straight goals after trailing 1-0 through 20 minutes.

  Nick Buonassisis, Chad Robinson, Jens Meilleur and Rene Hunter all had a goal and an assist for Brandon with Tim McGauley and Taylor Cooper also scoring for the Wheat Kings.

  “We had different guys step up, guys that hadn’t necessarily been vocal for the first few months of the season here.  Now, they stepped up – they were leaders in the dressing room and on the bench,” said Brandon assistant coach David Anning on CKLQ’s post-game show, “I thought that everybody bought in tonight, we really stayed the course and guys were saying the right things and, not only that, they were going out and executing that.  I think we’ve turned a page here, and I think there were a lot of positives tonight to build off of.”

  After registering ten points in 35 games with Everett this season, defenceman Nick Walters had three assists and was plus-three in his Wheat Kings’ debut

  “We had him on the right-side at times, we had him on the left side.  He`s an intelligent player, he understands the game, he really helps his partner, he`s talking all over the ice, he`s directing traffic,” said Anning, “As you saw tonight, he does a good job getting pucks through to the net and finding shooting lanes.  I thought he was solid throughout.”

  Marek Kalus also had an assist in his Brandon debut while Curtis Honey stopped 32 shots in the Wheat Kings’ net.

  The victory improved Brandon to 15-25-2-2 and leaves the Wheat Kings seven points behind eighth-place Medicine Hat in the Eastern Conference.

Chaff...former Wheat King Michael Ferland was pointless and had a minor penalty in his Blades’ debut as Saskatoon fell 3-1 to the visiting Red Deer Rebels...Alessio Bertaggia needs to get his immigration paperwork worked out before joining the Spokane Chiefs.  He’s expected to do so early next week.