It was not the start the Parkland Rangers were looking for when they hit the ice for game one of their best-of-five semifinal series with the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Brandon grabbed a 2-0 lead, 1:09 into the game and skated to an 8-1 win.

Callum Halls scored three times and Braden Keeble scored twice and added two assists to lead Brandon to the win.

Nolan Chastko chipped in with a goal and two assists, while Dylan Schrader and Nolan Roberts also scored. Mason Lobreau made 22 saves in the win.

Carter Zalischuk had Parkland’s only goal, which came on a power play. Brenden Birch-Hayden made 28 saves through two periods and Kyler Swanton stopped seven in the third.

Rangers coach Tyler Carefoot said the Rangers failed to minimize their turnovers, which led to the Wheat Kings scoring two goals early.

“We just simply turned the puck over at the blueline, they go down on a two-on-one and we can’t give that team those kinds of chances,” he said, adding the early two-goal deficit took the wind out of Parkland’s sails. “We just couldn’t seem to get right back into it. We lost our intensity, we lost our sandpaper and grit and we were just kind of holding on the rest of the way,” he said.

Brandon, he added, is a team that will capitalize on turnovers and game one was evident of that.

Entering the series, Carefoot talked about the need to say out of the penalty box, something the Rangers failed to do as Brandon scored three times on eight chances with the man advantage.

Twice the Rangers were called for four-minute penalties, which they managed to kill off.

“There were a couple of penalties I didn’t like. There’s two four-minute penalties. When you give a team like that four minutes on the power play, they’re capitalizing,” Carefoot said.

There were parts of the game where the Rangers played well.

“We had some cycles going, getting pucks to the net. It’s just minimizing turnovers and that’s something we’ve got to do a better job of,” Carefoot said.

For game two, the Rangers need to focus on moving the puck a little faster in the offensive zone.

“If you see a guy open, you can’t hesitate. You’ve got to get the puck to the open man and get pucks on net quicker,” Carefoot said. “One of the things I thought they did well was they’re were just so relentless in front of the net, just poking and prodding. Just keep competing until the whistle goes. And I think they scored, for sure, two or three goals that way.”

Despite the game one loss, Carefoot remains confident in his team and feels they can still make a series of it.

“That game for either team, there was no grit or sandpaper. It was like a November game. Both teams were just playing it out,” he said. “Ultimately, we need to tighten up on our turnovers and add far more grit and sandpaper like we had the last series. Factor in not giving them two four-minute power plays.”

Game two is in Dauphin, Friday at 7:30 p.m., with game three in Brandon at 1:30 p.m.