Billy Blade
02-10-2005, 11:48 PM
Source: http://www.brandonsun.com/displayad.cgi?adnum=1000
By James Shewaga
BRANDON SUN
Tuesday, February 09 2005
The Brandon Wheat Kings employed a United Nations approach for dealing with Hurricanes on Tuesday.
The Wheat Kings received goals from a Canadian (Ryan Stone), a Finn (Sami Sandell) and a Czech (Jakub Sindel) to beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes 3-1 in front of a Keystone Centre crowd of 3,394 last night. It was the first time Sandell - selected 10th overall by Brandon in the 2004 CHL Import Draft - and Sindel - picked 13th overall last year - have scored in the same game for the Wheat Kings, who improved to 28-19-5-1.
"Sami has been playing more and getting more ice time on a line with Teegan Moore and Ryan Reaves and they've earned their ice, they are playing really well," said Wheat Kings head coach/general manager Kelly McCrimmon. "And Jakub seems to be really finding his stride and his goal tonight when he scored it, the guys on the bench just kind of looked at each other. It was sort of one that left you with your mouth hanging open. It was obviously a great play by a skilled player and I think that he's getting more comfortable finding his way and that was a big goal for us because it did give us a little bit of insurance."
In a matchup of two of the top teams in the WHL's Eastern Conference, Brandon earned a little payback for an 8-2 drubbing it suffered two weeks ago in Lethbridge, Alta.
The Wheat Kings jumped on the Hurricanes early last night, with Stone finishing off a perfect 2-on-1 feed from Lance Monych to give the hosts a 1-0 lead just 1:18 into the game.
"That was one of the keys in the dressing room," said Stone. "We knew they were going to come out hard and they are a really good team, so we just wanted to get on the board first and take it from there. And Lance made a great pass to me and we scored."
Winnipegger Mark Olafson evened the score 1-1 with Lethbridge's lone goal of the night, but Sandell replied with the game-winner when his centring pass to Reaves from behind the net deflected in off of Hurricanes netminder Aaron Sorochan midway through the second period. It was the second goal of the season for the 17-year-old Finnish left-winger, with both goals coming against Lethbridge.
"That's just good luck, but it's great," said Sandell, with a grin. "I'm very happy. We worked hard today. We didn't quit. I think we played very well tonight."
Sindel gave the Wheat Kings an insurance goal with 4:27 remaining in the second period, taking a beautiful breakaway pass from captain Tim Konsorada and beating Sorochan top-shelf after a quick shift on the kind of highlight-reel goal that helped make him a second-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in last year's NHL Draft.
It was the 18-year-old Czech centre's seventh goal in the past nine games and stretched his goal-scoring streak to four straight games.
"It was open ice and (Konsorada) just saw me and passed it extremely good to me and I looked back and nobody was tracking back, so I said, ‘OK, let's slow down and let's do something,'" said Sindel.
"It's feeling perfect right now, everything is good on ice ... and I'm getting more confident right now."
Brandon netminder Tyler Plante made that 3-1 lead stand up, making 23 saves in a solid effort to earn his 21st victory of the season. Sorochan finished with 21 stops for Lethbridge, which slipped to 27-15-12-1.
"We came out flat in the first two periods and we can't wait until the third period to turn it on, especially against a team like Brandon," said Olafson. "They've got such skill up front and we were our own worst enemies in this game."
Brandon moved to within seven points of the East Division-leading Saskatoon Blades, with the Wheat Kings still holding two games in hand. Brandon is back in action tonight in Prince Albert to face the Raiders (7:15 p.m. CKLQ).
ICINGS: Wheat Kings RW Eric Fehr, the WHL's leading scorer with 42 goals and 73 points, extended his point-scoring streak to nine games (3-11-14) ... Brandon RW Lance Monych played in his 300th career WHL game last night ... The Wheat Kings were without D Riley Day (lacerated kidney, 2-3 weeks) and LW/D Corey Courchene (sore ribs), while D Theran Yeo and C/LW Tyler Strautman were healthy scratches ... The Hurricanes were missing D Brennan Chapman (strained knee, one week), while C Martin Ruzicka and D Lenny Thunderchild were healthy scratches ... Former NHLer John Ferguson and hockey analyst Jim Ralph will be among the guest speakers at the Wheat Kings' annual Sportsman's Dinner on Saturday at the Keystone Centre. Tickets are available at the Wheat King office (726-3535) ... Next home action for Brandon is this Sunday versus Regina at the Keystone Centre (6 p.m.).
By James Shewaga
BRANDON SUN
Tuesday, February 09 2005
The Brandon Wheat Kings employed a United Nations approach for dealing with Hurricanes on Tuesday.
The Wheat Kings received goals from a Canadian (Ryan Stone), a Finn (Sami Sandell) and a Czech (Jakub Sindel) to beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes 3-1 in front of a Keystone Centre crowd of 3,394 last night. It was the first time Sandell - selected 10th overall by Brandon in the 2004 CHL Import Draft - and Sindel - picked 13th overall last year - have scored in the same game for the Wheat Kings, who improved to 28-19-5-1.
"Sami has been playing more and getting more ice time on a line with Teegan Moore and Ryan Reaves and they've earned their ice, they are playing really well," said Wheat Kings head coach/general manager Kelly McCrimmon. "And Jakub seems to be really finding his stride and his goal tonight when he scored it, the guys on the bench just kind of looked at each other. It was sort of one that left you with your mouth hanging open. It was obviously a great play by a skilled player and I think that he's getting more comfortable finding his way and that was a big goal for us because it did give us a little bit of insurance."
In a matchup of two of the top teams in the WHL's Eastern Conference, Brandon earned a little payback for an 8-2 drubbing it suffered two weeks ago in Lethbridge, Alta.
The Wheat Kings jumped on the Hurricanes early last night, with Stone finishing off a perfect 2-on-1 feed from Lance Monych to give the hosts a 1-0 lead just 1:18 into the game.
"That was one of the keys in the dressing room," said Stone. "We knew they were going to come out hard and they are a really good team, so we just wanted to get on the board first and take it from there. And Lance made a great pass to me and we scored."
Winnipegger Mark Olafson evened the score 1-1 with Lethbridge's lone goal of the night, but Sandell replied with the game-winner when his centring pass to Reaves from behind the net deflected in off of Hurricanes netminder Aaron Sorochan midway through the second period. It was the second goal of the season for the 17-year-old Finnish left-winger, with both goals coming against Lethbridge.
"That's just good luck, but it's great," said Sandell, with a grin. "I'm very happy. We worked hard today. We didn't quit. I think we played very well tonight."
Sindel gave the Wheat Kings an insurance goal with 4:27 remaining in the second period, taking a beautiful breakaway pass from captain Tim Konsorada and beating Sorochan top-shelf after a quick shift on the kind of highlight-reel goal that helped make him a second-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in last year's NHL Draft.
It was the 18-year-old Czech centre's seventh goal in the past nine games and stretched his goal-scoring streak to four straight games.
"It was open ice and (Konsorada) just saw me and passed it extremely good to me and I looked back and nobody was tracking back, so I said, ‘OK, let's slow down and let's do something,'" said Sindel.
"It's feeling perfect right now, everything is good on ice ... and I'm getting more confident right now."
Brandon netminder Tyler Plante made that 3-1 lead stand up, making 23 saves in a solid effort to earn his 21st victory of the season. Sorochan finished with 21 stops for Lethbridge, which slipped to 27-15-12-1.
"We came out flat in the first two periods and we can't wait until the third period to turn it on, especially against a team like Brandon," said Olafson. "They've got such skill up front and we were our own worst enemies in this game."
Brandon moved to within seven points of the East Division-leading Saskatoon Blades, with the Wheat Kings still holding two games in hand. Brandon is back in action tonight in Prince Albert to face the Raiders (7:15 p.m. CKLQ).
ICINGS: Wheat Kings RW Eric Fehr, the WHL's leading scorer with 42 goals and 73 points, extended his point-scoring streak to nine games (3-11-14) ... Brandon RW Lance Monych played in his 300th career WHL game last night ... The Wheat Kings were without D Riley Day (lacerated kidney, 2-3 weeks) and LW/D Corey Courchene (sore ribs), while D Theran Yeo and C/LW Tyler Strautman were healthy scratches ... The Hurricanes were missing D Brennan Chapman (strained knee, one week), while C Martin Ruzicka and D Lenny Thunderchild were healthy scratches ... Former NHLer John Ferguson and hockey analyst Jim Ralph will be among the guest speakers at the Wheat Kings' annual Sportsman's Dinner on Saturday at the Keystone Centre. Tickets are available at the Wheat King office (726-3535) ... Next home action for Brandon is this Sunday versus Regina at the Keystone Centre (6 p.m.).