Wheat Kings break through in WHL finals

BRANDON, Manitoba – Lance Monych scored his playoff-leading 19th goal to lead the Brandon Wheat Kings to a 3-2 victory over the Kelowna Rockets in the Western Hockey League final on Tuesday night.

Kelowna leads the best-of-7 WHL championship series 2-1. Game 4 is slated to be played at the Keystone Centre tonight.

Steven Later and Eric Fehr also scored for the Wheat Kings, who battled back from an early 1-0 deficit in front of a crowd of 4,570.

Tyler Spurgeon and Lauris Darzins replied for the Rockets, who won Friday’s series opener 3-0 and posted a 4-1 victory in Game 2 on Saturday in Kelowna, British Columbia.

Brandon goalie Tyler Plante made 37 saves, and Kristofer Westblom stopped 30 shots for Kelowna.

The Wheat Kings led 2-1 after the opening period and 3-1 following the second.