BRANDON, Man. — Josh Medernach's second goal of the game, scored at 18:26 of the third period, allowed the Winnipeg ICE to force overtime in Western Hockey League action on Saturday night at Westoba Place.
And Zach Benson's goal with 6.7 seconds left in overtime gave the ICE a hard-fought 4-3 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings.
Scoring for Brandon were Brett Hyland, Mason Ward and Nolan Ritchie. Hyland also chipped in with two assists. Evan Friesen had the other Winnipeg goal.
Brandon led 1-0 after the first period and the teams were tied 1-1 entering the third. Winnipeg outshot Brandon 43-30.
Elsewhere on Saturday, the Medicine Hat Tigers opened their home schedule by whipping the Lethbridge Hurricanes 9-1.
Oasiz Wiesblatt scored twice for the Tigers, with singles added by Reid Andresen, Andrew Basha, Owen MacNeil, Bogdans Hodass, Rhett Parsons, Brendan Lee and Tyler MacKenzie.
Brayden Edwards scored for the Hurricanes, who trailed 4-1 after 20 minutes and 8-1 entering the third.
In Moose Jaw, Sask., the Regina Pats scored three times in the second period en route to a6-3 win over the Warriors.
Connor Bedard scored the hat trick for the Pats, with singles chipped in by Borya Valis, Parker Berge and Easton Armstrong. Bedard also had an assist.
Nathan Pilling, Atley Calvert and Brayden Yager scored for the Warriors.
In Prince George, B.C., the visiting Tri-City Americans scored three times in the first and four times in the third and rolled to an 8-3 win over the Cougars.
Ethan Ernst and Dwayne Jean Jr., led the Americans with two goals, with singles netted by Reese Belton, Jake Sloan, Adam Mechura and Lukas Dragicevic.
Koehn Ziemmer scored twice for the Cougars, while Riley Heidt had one goal.
The Everett Silvertips scored twice in the first period and added two more in the second to tip the visiting Vancouver Giants 4-1 at Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, Wash.
Jackson Berezowski, Eric Jamieson, Beau Courtney and Roan Woodward had the Everett goals, while Jaden Lipinski scored for the Giants.
In Red Deer, Alta, the Rebels scored two unanswered goals in the third period to beat the Edmonton Oil Kings 5-3.
Carter Anderson, Kai Uchacz, Jhett Larson, Frantisek Formanek and Hunter Mayo scored singles for the Rebels, while Shea Van Olm, Logan Dowhaniuk and Rhett Melnyk scored for the Oil Kings.
The Swift Current Broncos needed a shootout to defeat the Hitmen 3-2 in Calgary.
Braeden Lewis and Clarke Caswell scored in regulation time for the Saskatchewan visitors, while Oliver Tulk and Billal Noori scored for Calgary.
Luke Mistelbacher was the only one to score in the shootout. Swift Current had outshot the Hitmen 37-21 up to that point.
Tyler Parr scored with one second left in overtime to give the Saskatoon Blades a 2-1 win over the visiting Prince Albert Raiders.
Lukas Hansen of Saskatoon and Hayden Pakkala of Prince Albert traded first-period goals in the all-Saskatchewan battle. The Raiders outshot the hosts 25-16.
On Vancouver Island, the visiting Spokane Chiefs scored three goals in the third period and clipped the Victoria Royals 5-4.
Berkly Catton, Mac Gross, Saige Weinstein, Jake Gudelj and Raegan Wiles scored for the Chiefs, while Riley Gannon, Luke Shipley, Justin Kipkie and Nate Misskey scored for Victoria.
Gabe Klassen of the Portland Winterhawks had four goals, including one on a first-period penalty shot and one short-handed marker in the third that sparked his team's late comeback and forced overtime against the host Rockets in Kelowna, B.C.
The Winterhawks trailed 5-3 with less than five minutes to go when Klassen scored his fourth of the night and Luke Schelter made it 5-5 at 16:25. And the visitors capped the comeback when Luca Cagnoni scored at 2:48 of overtime.
Gabriel Szturc and Andrew Cristall each scored twice for Kelowna. Adam Kydd added a single.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2022.
The Canadian Press
