Wheat Kings win home opener in heated affair vs Vegreville
The Killam Wheat Kings hosted the Vegreville Rangers on Saturday, Sept. 29 in their home opener for the NEAJBHL 2012-13 season.
The last time these teams met was in the semi-final match up in the playoffs in game seven with Killam winning in double overtime.
Fans were treated to good physical hockey and plenty to cheer about on the scoreboard as the Wheat Kings out shot the Rangers 45-24 and won with a final score of 7-2.
Rookie Wheat King Tanner Sather scored his first goal for the Wheaties and opened the scoring on a power-play in the first, assisted by Cole Flad and Richard Lansing.
Killam added three more goals in the second period in just over three minutes, two of those with the man advantage.
Scoring for Killam were James Newby with a pair and Wyatt Fraser with a single. The Rangers scored two late in the period to make the score 4-2.
The Wheat Kings owned the third period, scoring three goals and shutting the Rangers out altogether.
Frustrations were running high for the Rangers, and after Shelby Badry was called for a hit from behind and was being escorted to the penalty box, words were exchanged, followed by blows, resulting in two separate fights.
All four players involved in the fights were handed out game suspensions and will sit out this Friday’s game in Vegreville.
The excitement didn’t end there, as while the officials were sorting out the penalties, a fight broke out in the stands between two fans.
The parties were escorted out of the building to cheers from the remaining fans.
Scoring for the Wheaties in the third were Dylan Herder, rookie Kyle Sanders, and Kyle Wandler. Damian MacKinnon was in net for the Wheat Kings.
After a rematch against the Rangers in Vegreville this Friday, the Wheat Kings will face off against the Lloydminster Bandits on Saturday in Killam with an 8 p.m. start.
The NEAJBHL has a new league format. The Board of Governors passed a motion to split the league into two divisions.
Each team will play four games against each team in the opposite division and six games against teams in their own division. This will result in a 34 game schedule for each team.
The North Division will consist of teams from Cold Lake, St. Paul, Saddle Lake, and Vegreville.
The South Division teams are Lloydminster, Vermilion, Wainwright, and Killam.
The board also passed a new regular season overtime format for the 2012/13 Season.
Fans will see four-on-four for the first five minutes of overtime, then if the game is still tied, the two teams will play three-on-three for five minutes; if the tie still isn’t broken there will then be a three-man shoot out.
In the shoot out, if the teams are still tied after three shooters, teams will alternate shooters until the game is decided.
This format should create excitement for the fans.
Jae Robbins
Staff Reporter
