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Brandon Wheatkings
04-02-2005, 01:34 AM
The Brandon Wheat Kings have pushed the Moose Jaw Warriors to the brink of elimination with Friday night's 4-3 victory at the 'Crushed Can'.

The reigning Eastern Division Champions scored three goals in a span of 2:50 in the second period en route to the win, giving the Wheat Kings a three games to one lead in the best of seven opening round playoff series.

With the score tied at one midway through the second period, Lance Monych intercepted a pass from Troy Brouwer and raced in to beat Moose Jaw netminder Josh Lepp with a big shorthanded goal. Brandon jumped ahead 3-1 two minutes later when Sami Sandell notched his first ever playoff goal - on the powerplay. The Wheat Kings took a three goal lead less than a minute later when Jeff Topilko scored his team leading fourth goal of the playoffs.

Moose Jaw scored one of it's three powerplay goals on the night with two minutes remaining in the second and managed to get to within one goal with eight minutes to go in the third period when Kenndal McArdle stuffed a loose puck past Wheat Kings' netminder Tyler Plante.

Codey Burki, with his first ever WHL playoff goal, also scored for the Wheat Kings, who were outshot for the second straight game - by a 43-34 margin.

Former Red Deer Rebel Blair Jones and Brouwer rounded out the Moose Jaw scoring with powerplay goals. In fact, the Warriors scored all three of their goals with the man advantage, going 3-7 on the night. Brandon, who led the WHL in powerplay production, was 1-6.

One of the reasons for the Wheat Kings lack of success with the man advantage had a lot to do with the fact that they were forced to play Friday's game without 20-year old defenceman Steven Later. The Winnipeg product, who finished second in scoring among all WHL defenceman this season, was slapped with a one game suspension earlier in the day for his part in Wednesday's third period brawl. The league's decision to suspend Later comes two days after deciding not to suspend Moose Jaw's Jordan Henry for blindsiding Codey Burki during game two of the series Sunday afternoon at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg.

"In the playoffs, you need good goaltending and we got it tonight," Brandon coach and general manager Kelly McCrimmon told CKLQ radio after the game. After turning aside 43 shots in game three on Wednesday, the 17-year old local product who is this year's Eastern Conference Finalist for Rookie of the Year, made 40 saves including fifteen in the final period of play.