Last-minute Wheat Kings comeback steals win from Blades

The Saskatoon Blades were seconds away from victory when the Brandon Wheat Kings intervened with a two-goal comeback to stun the crowd at SaskTel Centre and skate away with a 5-4 shootout victory Sunday.

With Saskatoon extending its lead to 4-2 with less than five minutes remaining, the team all but assured itself of taking two points in the East Division matchup before the Wheat Kings came to life in the final minute of the game.

With the net empty and only 65 seconds remaining in the game, Ridley Grieg and Connor Gutenberg scored goals to tie the game at 4-4 at the end of regulation before Jiri Patera denied all Blades shooters to take the shootout win.

“It’s a funny business,” Blades head coach Mitch Love said with a shrug following the game. “There’s been games here of late where we didn’t deserve to win and we found wins, and today we probably deserved to win and we didn’t win. It’s a fine line.”

All of the Blades games this season have been decided by one-goal margins. Even though the Blades have found itself on the losing end of most of them to this point of the season, Love thinks it will benefit his squad in the future.

“It’s tight. That margin of error for wins and losses at this level is tight. What I like about it is it’s giving us experience, especially our younger players, of playing in tight hockey games.

“We’re just getting a taste of it right now — it’s giving me definitely more balding and grey hairs in my beard these one-goal games.”

Brandon was able to win despite some minor adversity throughout the day. After playing on Saturday, the Wheaties stopped in Regina for a meal during its trip to Saskatoon only to have the team bus break down a short while later. The team arrived later than anticipated, but were unaffected by the delay.

Brandon opened the scoring in the first period on a giveaway from Blades defenceman Libor Zabransky from behind the net as a Blades penalty expired for a 1-0 lead at the intermission.

Moments after clanging iron, Eric Florchuk slipped a backdoor pass to Tristen Robins for an easy tap-in goal. Sunday was Florchuk’s return to the lineup since playing in the opening game against Prince Albert on Sept. 20.

Zach Huber would score his second of the season near the end of the second period before Grieg got his first of two goals by beating a Blades defender to the net on a cancelled icing.

Kyle Crnkovic fooled Patera with a shot along the ice for a 3-2 Saskatoon lead with 10:34 remaining in the third period.

Captain Chase Wouters looked like he set up the insurance goal with a beautiful pass at the side of the net to Riley McKay on a rush up the ice for another tap-in goal with 4:18 left in the third.

The 20-year-old veteran felt his team deserved a better fate.

“We got to learn to beat those guys. We were up two (goals). We can’t let off the gas like we did, and I thought we just played on our heels and stopped playing.

“Now we just got to give it our all.”

Saskatoon returns to SaskTel Centre on Wednesday when Bowen Byram, the fourth-overall selection in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, and the Vancouver Giants arrive in Saskatoon. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.