Crossroads staff
The West Central Atom Wheat Kings came close to winning a tournament in North Battleford last weekend.
Results were mixed for the other Wheat King teams.
In Saskatoon, the bantam Wheat Kings lost 8-3 to the Generals on Feb. 2 and 9-5 to the Maniacs on Feb. 3.
In their only action in the last seven days, the peewee Wheat Kings downed the Broncos 11-4 in Humboldt last Saturday.
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The bantams aren’t done with Saskatoon teams either as they are to host the Stallions in Unity on Sunday.
The peewees are to play the league-leading Knights in Prince Albert this Saturday and the second-place Wildcats in Warman on Sunday.
The atom Wheat Kings began the tournament with a 5-5 tie with the Lloydminster KFC Blazers on Friday. They then posted Saturday wins of 7-3 over the Lloydminster Fort Garry Blazers and 3-1 over Wainwright.
Wainwright went on to win the tournament, said Wheat King head coach Zane Hayes.
The North East team from the Nipawin, Melfort and Tisdale area then beat the Atom Wheat Kings 3-1.
That loss put the Wheat Kings in the B final, where they beat a North Battleford team 7-0.
“There were probably easily four teams in that tournament that could have won it;” North East, North Battleford and the Wheat Kings being the others, said Hayes.
In that loss to North East, “their goalie just played unreal,” he said.
Having a tiered team and going to tournaments with similar teams means the results are unpredictable, said Hayes.
The atom Wheat Kings have also been busy with exhibition games.
They tied the Kindersley peewee provincial team 3-3 in Kindersley on Jan. 30, beat a Swift Current AA atom team 4-2 in Cabri on Jan. 13 and played the Kerrobert peewee team twice on the Jan. 18-20 weekend, winning 7-4 and 8-7.
The bantam Wheat Kings led the Maniacs 3-0 after the first period. Saskatoon outscored West Central five goals to two in the second period to tie the game after two periods.
Ethan Hilbig, Colbey Frocklage, Jakin Lawrence, Karson Blanchette and Hunter Sperle got the Wheat King markers.
Lawrence also had two assists.
Tye Spencer scored six of the Maniacs’ nine goals.
Logan McCutcheon had five assists, four of them on goals by Spencer.
Blake Sittler made 31 saves for West Central.
Maniac goalie Alex Garrett stopped 16 Wheat King shots.
The Generals game went the opposite way with the city team leading 4-0 after the first stanza and 6-1 after two.
Frocklage, Lawrence and Sperle tallied for the Wheat Kings.
Ethan Kelly assisted on two of their goals.
Mason Bueckert got a hat trick for the Generals.
Avery Kohlman and Sittler split time in the Wheat King goal, making two and 21 saves, respectively.
Rhett Harkot turned back 36 Wheat King shots on the Generals net.
The peewee Wheat King led the Broncos 4-0 and 7-2 by periods.
Carter Ralston scored four goals, Dayton Reschny got two more and Ethan Sautner, Cam Perlinger, Cole Reschny, Cobe Perlinger and Pryce Thiessen also contributed goals.
Sautner and Dayton Reschny each had three assists and Cole Reschny got two assists.
Cam Marshak scored twice for Humboldt.
Wheat King goalie Paige Fischer picked up the win.
Brady Holtvogt went the distance in the Bronco net.