Braillard snipes twice as Hurricanes take Game 1
Leo Braillard was set up for goals twice by Brayden Yager as the Lethbridge Hurricanes beat the Brandon Wheat Kings 6-3 in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series at VisitLethbridge.com Arena on Friday.
Vojtech Port, Shane Smith, Tony Wilson and Kooper Gizowski also scored for Lethbridge, with Nolan Flamand, Roger McQueen and Dylan Ronald replying for Brandon in front of a Western Hockey League crowd of 4,003.
The series resumes in Lethbridge on Saturday with Game 2 at 7 p.m. (CDT). Brandon will play its home games in Virden at Tundra Oil & Gas Place on Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m. Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said his team played well at times, but mistakes and inconsistency hurt them.
March 28, 2025
“I thought the first two periods were pretty good, other than we gave up two at the start of the second and one with 13 seconds left in the second,” Murray said. “That was kind of a back breaker. I thought the first two periods we played with emotion — maybe too much at times — where we got involved in too much stuff after the whistle, things like that. At least we had some jam and fight in our game.
“I thought the third period was kind of disappointing. We didn’t have a lot of push-back. We need desperation in our game and we didn’t have enough in the third period.”
Wheat Kings captain Quinn Mantei delivered a huge hit on Lethbridge forward Luke Cozens in the opening seconds of the game, and that seemed to set the tone for a physical night that featured scrums after virtually every whistle.
Brandon had a terrific opportunity on a power play one minute 12 seconds into the game and moved the puck around and had a number of chances but didn’t score. Just 24 seconds after it ended, Lethbridge went to their first power play and capitalized when Yager found Brailliard with a terrific pass in front of the net for a tip past Brandon goalie Carson Bjarnason.
The hosts made it 2-0 with the teams playing four on four. Brandon couldn’t get the puck out, and the defenceman Port jumped into the slot and lifted a shot over Bjarnason to make it 2-0.
The puck went the other direction after the faceoff at centre ice and just 18 seconds later, Flamand fired a low shot past Lethbridge goalie Jackson Unger to get Brandon back within a goal.
The start of the second period was an absolute nightmare for the visitors. The Hurricanes pressed in the Wheat Kings zone and, once again, Smith was left alone and scored 1:50 in the middle frame. Just 13 seconds later, a former Wheat King struck when a shot by Tony Wilson hit a stick in front and Lethbridge suddenly led 4-1.
But Brandon answered again three minutes later when McQueen sent a wicked snap shot past Unger from the circle for his fifth goal in five career playoff games.
For the third time a goal was scored with the teams playing four on four when Flamand made a pass to Ronald and the defenceman leaned into a shot for his first WHL post-season goal.
It was their second goal of the period on just five shots, although both were good ones.
Just as Brandon seemed to be finding its way back into the game, with 13.4 seconds remaining in the second period, Gizowksi snapped the puck past Bjarnason off the rush.
“I thought we pushed,” Murray said. “We got down and climbed back in to make it a 4-3 game and I thought we had some real good, positive energy there for a number of minutes at the end of the second, and then we gave up one at the end of the second that was a little bit of a back breaker. It is what it is. It’s playoff hockey and you have to be ready to fight back and face that adversity right in the eyes.”
Things tightened up in the final frame, with Brandon taking more than six minutes to get a shot on net, and that came after Bjarnason denied Yager twice on outstanding chances.
The game was put out of reach when Yager found Braillard again off the rush and the Swiss forward’s low shot beat Bjarnason through the legs 7:24 into the final frame to put the game out of reach.
Brandon may suffered an even bigger loss than game 1 with 5:32 remaining.
Bjarnason was slow to get up when Miguel Marques ran into him as he and Donald raced to the net, and after physical therapist Zach Hartwick came out to attend to the goalie, he left the game and was replaced by backup Ethan Eskit. Marques was assessed a goaltender interference call on the play, which drew lusty boos from a crowd that clearly thought the defenceman had guided the forward into his own goalie.
“We have to be tidier in our own end,” Murray said. “We got lost with a lot of D involved in the offence and leaving their points, so there are a lot of moving parts there. It’s marking a guy and identifying and communicating. There were a couple of times we got lost in no-man’s land and left guys open in front of the net.”
Bjarnason made 37 saves and Eskit stopped three shots for the Wheat Kings, with Unger turning aside 32 shots for the Hurricanes.
Brandon went 1-for-5 on the power play against the league’s best penalty kill in the regular season, with Lethbridge scoring once in two chances.
ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured F Easton Odut and D Merrek Arpin, plus healthy scratches F Ben Binder Nord, F Isaac Davies and D Cam Allard, … Lethbridge played without injured D Kale Tipler and had several healthy scratches … Lethbridge’s last playoff win was 2,189 days ago when they beat the Calgary Hitmen 7-4 on March 31, 2019. They lost the series two nights later, and have been swept in their last three post-season appearances … Quinn Mantei and Joby Baumuller led the Wheat Kings with four shots each on net … The game took two hours, 36 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, it was 34-34 … If needed, Game 5 is back in Alberta on Friday at 8 p.m., Game 6 would be in Virden on Sunday at 4 p.m. and a deciding Game 7 is set for Lethbridge on Tuesday at 8 o’clock.
» Twitter: @PerryBergson
