The ebbs and flows, ups and downs of Wednesday’s contest ended up in Brandon’s favour when defenceman Chad Nychuk scored a short-handed goal in overtime to give the Wheat Kings a 6-5 triumph over the Saskatoon Blades.

As a result, both teams have 57 points, tied for fifth place in the Eastern Conference, the Bridge City Bunch with a 27-18-3 record while the Wheaties are 26-15-5. It was a game in which Brandon scored the game’s first two goals, only to have the Blue and Gold tie it up. The Wheat Kings scored another brace of goals for a 4-2 lead in the second period, only to trail 5-4 to the Blades after 40 minutes. Saskatoon was 89 seconds away from their 28th victory of the season, only to have Nolan Ritchie tie the score and force extra time with Wheaties’ goaltender Ethan Kruger on the bench for an extra attacker, setting the stage for Nychuk’s 15th goal of the season, seven of which are game-winners. It was the first time the home team had won in five head-to-head meetings between Brandon and the Blades and the second time Nychuk had scored an O-T winner against Saskatoon. Trevor Wong scored twice, the third straight game with goals for the 18-year-old centre while extending his consecutive game points streak to eight games, while the Bridge City Bunch’s other goals were supplied by Vaughn Watterodt, Kyran Gronick and Kyle Crnkovic. The same teams meet Friday with the Wheat Kings putting a five-game winning streak on the line against the Blue and Gold. Game time is 7 p.m. with the broadcast beginning at 6:30 on CJWW. Following is the game summary courtesy the W-H-L along with Les Lazaruk’s post-game show interview with head coach Brennan Sonne…..

Saskatoon Blades 5 at Brandon Wheat Kings 6 (OT) – Status: Final OT
Wednesday, February 23, 2022 – Westoba Place – Brandon, MB

Saskatoon 1 4 0 0 – 5
Brandon 2 2 1 1 – 6

1st Period-1, Brandon, Iorio 8   2:56. 2, Brandon, Ritchie 19 (Kallionkieli, Ginnell), 7:31. 3, Saskatoon, Watterodt 3 (Gronick, Rhinehart), 14:39. Penalties-No Penalties

2nd Period-4, Saskatoon, Wong 11 (Parr, Lisowsky), 0:48. 5, Brandon, Ginnell 11 (Iorio), 1:23. 6, Brandon, Kallionkieli 10 (Ginnell, Ritchie), 5:32. 7, Saskatoon, Wong 12 (Lisowsky, Parr), 7:17. 8, Saskatoon, Gronick 7 (Wright, Schneider), 18:01. 9, Saskatoon, Crnkovic 33 (Robins, Rhinehart), 19:17. Penalties-Ritchie Bdn (high sticking, high sticking), 10:20.

3rd Period-10, Brandon, Ritchie 20 (Nychuk, Iorio), 18:31 (EN). Penalties-Wong Sas (tripping), 4:08; Schneider Sas (hooking), 8:13.

OT Period-11, Brandon, Nychuk 15 (Ritchie), 4:55 (SH). Penalties-Iorio Bdn (holding), 3:55.

Shots on Goal-Saskatoon 14-11-2-1-28. Brandon 12-5-9-4-30.
Power Play Opportunities-Saskatoon 0 / 3; Brandon 0 / 2.
Goalies-Saskatoon, Maier 22-15-2-1 (29 shots-24 saves). Brandon, Kruger 20-8-2-2 (28 shots-23 saves).
A-2,065
Referees-Ben Croker (81), Karlin Krieger (27).
Linesmen-Logan Young (179), Andrew Paul (171).