Brandon, MB. – The Brandon Wheat Kings and Moose Jaw Warriors split a so-called twi-night doubleheader at Westman Communications Group Place Wednesday night.

In what was easily one of the most bizarre nights in the franchise’s 50-year history in the Western Hockey League, the Wheat Kings dropped an overtime decision to open the night but despite a short bench managed to rebound to win the second game in extra time.

The WHL teams played more than four periods as they completed the fog-shortened 2016 Home Opener that began on September 24th but was cancelled due to player safety concerns, before returning to the ice for their regularly scheduled game.

To make things even more interesting, they added overtime to both games, meaning each game of this year’s season series between the two have been settled in OT.

In the opening game – the Fog Bowl – Thomas Foster scored in OT to give the Warriors a 4-3 win.

Leading 2-1 when the game was postponed nearly five months ago, the Warriors fell behind 3-2 in the third before rallying to even the score with just over a minute remaining in regulation, setting the stage for the game winner at the 3:37 mark of overtime. Stelio Mattheos scored twice in a losing cause for the Wheat Kings, with the first goal coming in the first period back in September. His second tied things up Wednesday night, before Dmity Osipov’s third period goal gave Brandon its only lead of the game.

In the nitecap, which began at 7:38pm, Nolan Patrick scored twice, including the overtime winner as the Wheat Kings scored a dramatic 4-3 win to gain a split and collect three of a possible four points on the night.

After Brandon jumped on the Warriors for two first period goals, Moose Jaw scored the only goal of the second, leaving the Wheat Kings up 2-1 through forty minutes of play.

In the third, Moose Jaw scored back to back goals to grab a 3-2 lead, before Mattheos – with his third goal in the 2-game marathon – sent the game into overtime when he beat Moose Jaw netminder Zach Sawchenko with 1:24 to play.

That set the stage for Patrick’s thrilling overtime game winner at the 37 second mark.

16-year old rookie Rylan Bettens also scored for the Wheat Kings, who outshot the Warriors in both games – 39-33 in the opener and 37-34 in game two. Despite not starting the Home Opener last fall, Logan Thompson suffered the loss in game one before rebounding to win game 2.

As a result of Wednesday night’s action, the Wheat Kings improved to 26-20-5-2 and remain in first place in the Eastern Conference Wild Card race. Brandon trails third place Swift Current by five points in the Eastern Division as the Broncos edged Edmonton 3-2 Wednesday.

“It was big points for us tonight,” Brandon coach David Anning told the Brandon Sun following what was a memorable night at the Keystone. “It was basically five periods tonight when it’s all said and done and I thought leading up to it was far from ideal in terms of preparation. We had limited numbers at practice…we had guys missing, we had guys not feeling well and I feel like how the game went is exactly how we needed to play in order to be successful.”

While the Wheat Kings rallied to win game two, the big winners on the night may have been western Manitoba hockey fans. Close to 4,200 fans turned out for the game, which was “free” to anyone that had a ticket to last September’s banner unveiling home opener, thanks to an agreement between the WHL, the Wheat Kings and the Keystone Centre.

Next game for the Wheat Kings is Friday night when they host the U.S. Division leading Everett Silvertips.

Friday is 60’s Night and in addition to hearing the sounds of the sixties and early seventies, fans will see the Wheat Kings take to the ice in special 1967 Throwback jerseys. Those game worn jerseys will be auctioned off throughout the game, in support of the Westman Dreams for Kids. While one jersey has already been sold during last weekend’s CKLQ broadcast from Swift Current, another (Meyer Nell) will be up for grabs on 94.7 Star FM Friday morning.

That leaves 21 player jerseys, plus three more from 1967-68 team members Ted Temple, Jack Borotsik and Ray Brownlee, will be on the auction block Friday night.

Tickets to the game, which is a presentation of Enns Brothers and John Deere, are on sale at the Keystone Centre box office, by calling 726-3555 or online at keystonecentre.com

Photo Courtesy of Milana Paddock