Wheaties Goaltender Stands Tall, in More Ways Than One, Backstopping Victory Over Blades

By all rights, Filip Ruzicka should’ve helped his draft stock greatly with his play Saturday night in front of a “Girls Rock Night” crowd of 4,467 at SaskTel Centre.

The 6’7″ goaltender from Czechia stopped 34 of 36 shots, 27 of the saves coming in the final two periods, backstopping the Brandon Wheat Kings to a 3-2 triumph over the Saskatoon Blades. The 17-year-old, who didn’t join the Wheaties until the first week of October – after Brandon started the regular-season on a 5-game winless streak – was the Wheat Kings best penalty killer as he stopped seven shots on the five Bridge City Bunch power play chances – all after Brandon had staked themselves to the 3-2 lead. Jordan Gavin gave Ruzicka and the Wheaties all the offence they needed, scoring twice – including the winning goal – and assisted on Luke Mistelbacher’s man advantage tally. Only Hunter Laing and Tyler Parr were able to beat Ruzicka as the Blue and Gold had their four-game winning streak snapped. The Wheat Kings improved to 11-10-1 for the season while the Blades are at 14-9-2. Saskatoon is off until Friday when they host the Medicine Hat Tigers. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Dan Da Silva and centre Kazden Mathies plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L website…..

BRANDON Goals BRANDON PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 14:56  13-12-14 12 13 14 17 62 3 4 11 16 27 2nd 7:22 PP  26-11-13 2nd 13:06  13-62-17 5 12 13 17 62 3 4 9 23 82

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) BRANDON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 11:15  27-3-16 3 4 11 16 27 8 11 23 27 84 2nd 11:11  20-4-23 4 20 23 47 82 5 6 13 17 62