During Game 1 of the WHL Championship at Westman Place in Brandon, Manitoba this weekend, the Brandon Wheat Kings beat the Seattle Thunderbirds, but they had to go into overtime to get their 3-2 score. Seattle either tied or led for most of the game from the second period on, but the Wheat Kings were able to squeeze in a final goal during overtime to secure the game.

Brandon made the first goal of the night when Duke scored. McGauley made the assist. During the first period, penalties were on Thomson and Brn for slashing and Ottenbreit and Sea for interference. Seattle got on the board during the second period when Donovan Neuls tied the game up with an assist from Alexander True. Second period penalties were had by Hawryluk and Brn for roughing, Hauf and Sea for hooking, Lewis and Brn for high sticking, Ottenbreit and Sea for holding and Eansor and Sea for high sticking.

Seattle took the lead during the third period when Ryan Gropp scored with assists from both Keegan Kolesar and Ethan Bear. Brandon tied the game back up again during the same period when Patrick scored. Wheaton and Hawryluk had the assists on the goal. Third period penalties were given on Provorov and Brn for tripping, McGauley and Brn for tripping and Bow and Sea for tripping. During overtime, Kaspick scored the winning goal with an assist from Campbell. No penalties were issued during overtime.

While it’s not fun to lose the first game of the WHL Championship, the Birds have pretty much made it look easy up until this point. Even when you could tell they were giving it all they had, they still had the stats to show that they won almost every game during every round, including shutouts. So maybe it’s best that we get this loss out of the way in the first place to pave the way for some more winning very soon.

Shots on goal for the night includes 15-12-6-0 32 for Seattle and 6-9-17-10 42 for Brandon. Bow made 39 saves on 42 shots. Refs for the game were Chris Schlenker and Jeff Ingram. The next WHL Championship game will be on Saturday at 5:30pm at Westman Place. Games 3 and 4 are scheduled to occur at the ShoWare Center in Seattle on May 10 and May 11, respectively. Tickets remain on sale for game 4 but game 3 is sold out.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia