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The Brandon Wheat Kings have advanced to the second round of the Western Hockey League playoffs after eliminating the Calgary Hitmen in overtime Thursday night in Winnipeg.

 

The Wheat Kings jumped out to a 1-0 lead 0:36 into the 2nd period on a goal from Alessio Bertaggia - his 3rd of the series.  It remained a 1-0 game through 40 minutes.

 

Then 1:12 into the 3rd period, Calgary tied it up on a goal from Alex Gogolev.  Just 33-seconds later, the Hitmen had the lead after a goal from Chase Clayton.  His first of the playoffs gave the Hitmen some new life and they had the Wheat Kings on their heels.

But Brandon scored at the 4:14 mark to draw even.  Paul Ciarelli with his first of the postseason knotting it up at two.  The two teams then traded chances late in the third period but Brandon goaltender Corbin Boes made a number of key saves to force overtime - the first OT game of the series.

 

In the extra frame, Calgary took the game to Brandon over the first 8-minutes out-shooting the Wheat Kings 8-0 - and that included a Wheat King powerplay that generated no shots on goal.

 

But when Brandon did get their shots - they scored with both of them.  Paul Ciarelli lasered a wrist shot over the right shoulder of Calgary netminder Brandon Glover with what many believed was the winner - even the guy working the goal horn.  But the referee didn't call it a goal and as the horn blared on the ensuing mad scramble in front, Darian Dziurzynski made sure it was over sticking the puck into an open goal to send Brandon through.

 

The goal was officially handed to Dziurzynski but it was widely accepted that it was actually Ciarelli's shot that ended the series.  Following the game, Wheat Kings General Manager Kelly McCrimmon said it was Brandon's first 4-2 overtime win.

 

The Wheat Kings now wait and see who they'll play next.  It looks as if they'll face the top-seeded Edmonton Oil Kings who eliminated Kootenay Thursday night, that is IF Regina is eliminated by Moose Jaw.  The Warriors lead the Pats 3-1 in their set with game five Friday in Moose Jaw.

 

A Brandon/Edmonton series would start in Edmonton on Friday, April 6th.

 

GAME NOTES:
-The overtime win over Calgary was Brandon's first overtime win since eliminating the Hitmen in the semifinals of the 2010 Memorial Cup which the Wheat Kings hosted.

-Brandon F Alessio Bertaggia had points in four of the five games in the series.

-Calgary won three of their four games versus Brandon during the regular season - but lost three straight in Winnipeg.

-The Wheat Kings improved their record at the MTS Centre to 13-4 and 6-3 in the postseason.

-There were 4,002 fans in attendance Thursday night - the highest attendance of the series at MTS Centre.

-Including the regular season, Brandon has now won 19 of their last 26 games.

-Brandon improves to 10-3 in games where they have a chance to close out a playoff series since 2003.

-Wheat Kings have now advanced to the 2nd round of the playoffs in eight of the last ten years