Saturday, April 18, 2009

WHL Round-Up

Press Release

Brandon, Manitoba -- The Calgary Hitmen scored six second period goals Friday night en route to an impressive 9-3 victory over the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings in the opening game of the Western Hockey League's Husky Mohawk Eastern Conference Final.

Leading 1-0 after twenty minutes of play, the Hitmen roared out to a 7-0 second period lead, with four of those six goals comming within a five minute span that spelled the end to Brandon starting netminder Andrew Hayes.

Hayes, who stopped ten of the 16 shots that he faced on the night was pulled at the 7:45 mark of period two. His replacement, James Priestner, finished up the game by turning aside 16 of the twenty shots that he faced.

Game two of the best of seven series will be played Sunday afternoon in Calgary, before the series shifts back to Brandon's Westman Place for games three and four on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

Friday's loss snapped Brandon's 10-game winning streak - a run that included eight playoff victories. It also marked the first time since January 30th that the Wheat Kings had lost (in regulation time) on the road.

Kyle Bortis led the Hitmen, who captured the WHL regular season title with an impressive 59-9-3-1 record, with two goals Friday night while singles came off the sticks of Alex Plante, Bostjan Golicic, Kris Foucault, Tyler Fiddler, Paul Postma, Keith Seabrook and former Moose Jaw Warrior Joel Broda.

Andrew Clark, with his team leading 8th playoff goal, Brayden Schenn and Nathan Green replied for the Wheat Kings, who were outshot 35-21. Schenn's third period goal extended his playoff point scoring streak to nine games and moved him into sole posession of the club playoff scoring lead with seven goals and 16 points.

As potent as the Wheat Kings powerplay has been this post-season (12-42, 1st), the Hitmen have picked up right where they left off during the regular season. Calgary was 3-7 with the man advantage in game one, after leading the league during the regular season (30.2%). In 9 playoff games, the Hitmen are 13-50 (26%).

Tickets to games three and four are on sale Saturday at the Keystone Centre box office. Fans can also order by phone at 726-3555 or online at ticketmaster.ca

As of 5 p.m. Friday, less than 3,300 tickets had been sold for Tuesday's game.

The WHL Kal Tire Western Conference Final begins Saturday night, with the Vancouver Giants hosting the Kelowna Rockets.

(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

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