Blades Bounce Wheat Kings

Jason Swyripa scored Brandon's only goal on Monday

  2/10ths of a second happens in the blink of an eye and for the Brandon Wheat Kings on Monday night, 2/10ths of a second may have turned an entire 60 minutes against them.

  Darren Dietz’s power-play goal with 2/10ths of a second left in the first period lifted the Saskatoon Blades into a 1-1 with the Wheat Kings and the Blades outshot Brandon 37-10 and outscored the Wheat Kings 4-0 the rest of the way for a 5-1 victory.

  Dietz’s goal certainly hurt the Wheat Kings’ cause, but it was another moment in time just second apart early in the second period that really sealed Brandon’s fate.

  Geordie Maguire was robbed of a sure goal by Saskatoon goaltender Andrey Makarov and Lukas Sutter scored just seconds later to give Saskatoon their first lead of the game at 2-1.

  “You see that a thousand times. We score there, we’re winning the game and it’s probably a different game because it gives your team momentum,” said Brandon assistant coach Darren Ritchie on CKLQ’s post-game show, “Obviously, they go down and score and they’ve got the momentum and then, from there, we were just chasing the puck.”

  Jason Swyripa had opened the scoring for the Wheat Kings at the 10:54 mark of the first period, his first goal since January 5^th that ended an 18-game goalless drought.

  That goal and 40 saves from Curtis Honey, a few of the spectacular variety, were the only real highlights for the Wheat Kings.

  Among Honey’s 40 stops was a great save on former Wheat King Brenden Walker on a 2-on-0 break in the second period.

  Dietz, Matej Stransky and Shane McColgan all had a goal and an assist each for the Blades, who have won 12 in a row overall and have moved four points ahead of Prince Albert for first-place in the East Division.

  The loss was Brandon’s fifth in six games and 40^th this season (21-35-3-2).