Wheat Kings weather spate of injuries

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This article was published 20/12/2024 (272 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The real bullets begin to fly soon for the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The Western Hockey League club enters the second half of the season when the Regina Pats visit on Dec. 27. In an incredibly tight Eastern Conference — just six points separates the first-place Medicine Hat Tigers from the ninth-place Red Deer Rebels — every game will matter for the sixth-place Wheat Kings (15-9-3-2)

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said the first half went OK, although there were some games they should have had a better result.

“If you take a step back and consider where we are considering the number of man-games lost and to pretty important players, where we’re at is encouraging,” Murray said. “You’re never happy or satisfied. You can look back at five or six games and say ‘Boy, we left some points on the table there,’ most of them in overtime for us where we haven’t held leads and then lost in overtime or a shootout. Those have been very frustrating.”

Brandon played just 29 games in the first half of the season, with 18 at home. They now have 39 games remaining before they finish up on March 22, with their tough trip through the B.C. Division among the obstacles.

Just five Wheat Kings have skated in all 29 games, forwards Marcus Nguyen, Caleb Hadland, Brady Turko and Matteo Michels, plus defenceman Luke Shipley.

Brandon’s list of players who have missed significant time include star forward Roger McQueen (21 games), Nick Johnson (15 games), Easton Odut (nine games, including healthy scratches), Ben Binder Nord (nine games), Carter Klippenstein (seven games), Nigel Boehm (seven games, including healthy scratches), Gio Pantelas (seven games, including healthy scratches and U17 World Hockey Challenge), Adam Belusko (seven games, including world juniors), Dominik Petr (six games, including world juniors), Joby Baumuller (five games), Jaxon Jacobson (four games, including for U17 World Hockey Challenge) and Quinn Mantei (four games).

As a result, the Slovakian defenceman Belusko played up front many nights as the Wheat Kings repeatedly dressed 11 forwards and seven defencemen just to put 18 skaters on the ice. That’s on a team with eight first-year players, which may pay off in the long run.

“Younger players have had some more expanded roles than they would normally at this stage of their career, and I think there have been some ups and downs, but overall they’ve risen to the occasion and hopefully that expedites their development,” Murray said.

The most impactful loss was McQueen, a highly touted 18-year-old forward who is expected to be a first-round pick in next summer’s National Hockey League draft. He started the season with a four-goal game and had eight goals in eight games before an upper-body injury shut him down on Oct. 11.

It’s unknown if or when the six-foot-five forward will play again this season.

“Losing McQueen — I don’t know if he continues on a goal-a-game pace but he’s probably at 40 points right now and that probably bumps up other numbers around him — so that’s obviously a big hole,” Murray said. “The strength of our team is the depth of our forwards and the ability to have especially one through three lines that can dictate a game.”

Power forward Nick Johnson, 19, had a hat trick on Sept. 21 in the second game of the season before he was injured later in the game and didn’t return until Nov. 15. He now has eight goals and 19 points in just 14 games.

“I think all things considered, our first half hasn’t been great but it hasn’t been awful,” he said. “If you look at the standings right now, we’re three points out of being out of a playoff spot but three points out of second place. Everything is so close: We’ve had a lot of adversity and we’re still right with teams who have been there all year.

“In that sense, it’s a real good thing, but with this group, we should be striving for more. I don’t think anyone is satisfied with where we’re at right now.”

Team captain Quinn Mantei said the first half has been good.

“I’m pretty happy with it. I know we’ve had a pretty light first half schedule-wise, and we’ve been lucky to be home,” Mantei said. “Given what we’ve gone through with injuries and short lineups, I think we’ve put ourselves in a really good spot in the top half of the conference.”

FORWARDS

Brandon kept 13 forwards this season, and haven’t had all of them available for a single game.

Six of them are clipping along at a point-per-game pace or close to it, led by Nguyen, the overage acquisition from the Portland Winterhawks who has team highs of 15 goals and 31 points. Two others have eclipsed the 10-goal mark, with Matteo Michels and Calen Hadland both sitting at 12.

Three players are tied for the assists lead at 18, Nolan Flamand, Dominik Petr and rookie Jaxon Jacobson.

His former under-18 AAA Wheat Kings linemate Brady Turko has 10 points in his last 10 games after picking up four points in his first 19 games, so he’s coming on. It has been a bumpy ride this season.

A month ago, Murray sat down with the forwards and challenged them to be better. The team was in the bottom third of the league in goals for, and simply not generating enough.

“To their credit, they’ve stopped up a little bit,” Murray said. “I think there’s still room to grow and to get better, and finishing at critical times of the game. (On Tuesday), you have a chance to put a team away, and we don’t, then all of a sudden we’re in overtime. I think the forward group has been a little constant but I kind of like the way it’s trending.”

Brandon has scored 107 goals, which is 15th most in the league and an average of 3.69 goals per game.

• MATTEO MICHELS: “We were kind of off to a slow start. I think we all expected coming into this year we were going to be a really deep forward group and dominate, but with injuries and having Roger out and Johnson for a little bit, I think our production hasn’t been quite up to what we thought it would be. Looking back the last couple of weeks with the forward meeting we had with the coaches, I think we’ve been holding up to what we thought we would be and dominating and scoring a lot of goals. Right before Christmas and heading into the trade deadline, our forward group is looking really strong.”

• CALEB HADLAND: “With Roger being out — he’s a big aspect of our forward group and the skill we have up front — but I think we’ve filled his role quite well. We’ve bonded together and we’ve been scoring a lot of goals lately, which is a good sign. Hopefully we can keep that going and look for better things in the future.”

• JOBY BAUMULLER: “We are pretty skilled, deep forward group. We don’t really have a fourth line, we can all play anywhere in any position. We all battle hard and play pretty fast and a skilled game and we also have some gritty guys. We have a very group forwards corps that can take us a long way.”

• CARTER KLIPPENSTEIN: “Our forward group went through a bit of a rough patch and then Marty pulled us all in and told us that things needed to change and in three games we had 17 goals. Over the past couple of weeks our forward group has taken a massive step and that’s been awesome.”

• NICK JOHNSON: “We have a strong forward group, but I don’t think this first half has shown everything we can do. When we look at our goals for and compare it to other teams, we were on the lower end and these past couple of games, we’ve kind of buckled down and buried our chances. We made it a goal to outscore a majority of the teams until the end of the year and we’ve found that. I think we’re going in the right direction. We have a solid group and we’re all going to improve.”

DEFENCE

Of the three positional groups, it’s hard to argue that the eight-man defensive unit has come the furthest season over season.

Buoyed by four newcomers — the 16-year-olds Pantelas and Boehm and the 18-year-olds Belusko and Dylan Ronald — the blue-line has been a revelation.

Mantei, the team’s two-time defenceman of the year, has been steady while showing new confidence with the puck: His partner Charlie Elick’s strength lies in his own end. Overager Luke Shipley has taken his game to a new level, and veteran Rhett Ravndahl has also been defensively strong.

Only the powerhouse Everett Silvertips have allowed fewer goals than Brandon, which has allowed 91 in 29 games for an average of 3.14 per game.

“I think it’s been a little bit of a pleasant surprise,” Murray said. “I wouldn’t say we’re a defensive juggernaut by any means and I think it starts by having good goaltending and we’ve had good goaltending. I think we can be sharper defensively with our D corps and our forward group working in unison. Overall, I think we’ve been in the top for goals against in the entire league for most of the year and we’ll take that. If you told me that four or five months, I would have been quite happy.”’

• LUKE SHIPLEY: “I think we have a really strong D corps. We have eight of us, so guys are hungry to get into the lineup. You can’t play every night obviously, but our young guys have adjusted and I think played pretty well so far and have had a big role for having two 16-year-olds and a rookie and a Euro. Our top four has been pretty solid. If I’m not mistaken, we have one of the least amount of goals against in the league. Coming from an offensive defenceman who has shifted my game the last two years to be able to shut down some top lines, it’s an honour and you strive towards that.”

• MATTEO MICHELS: “With our 16-year-olds, we have a young defensive corps but they’ve looked really good as time has gone on and they’re gaining confidence and not taking any crap from anybody and using their size to their advantage. The veterans have continued on with what they did last year with Shipley and Q, and our D corps has looked really good, even Ronny (Dylan Ronald) coming in as a rookie too. He’s had a lot of confidence and doesn’t seem like he’s a rookie at all. They’ve been pretty good.”

• JOBY BAUMULLER: “I think our D corps has gotten a lot stronger this year. We have some younger D but in a couple of years those guys will be fully grown into their potential. I think we have a good solid D corps right now.”

• CARTER KLIPPENSTEIN: “Especially over the past couple of weeks and month, I’ve seen a lot more confidence from them moving the puck up and even jumping into the play too. They’re growing every single day in practice, that’s noticeable too. It’s awesome to see.”

• ETHAN ESKIT: “Everyone has gotten stronger. We have a really good D corps in front of us and I think that shows, because we’re bear the bottom on goals against. Not just our D, our forwards are really doing as well so it’s great to see everyone gelling together and doing their part.”

• NICK JOHNSON: “Our defence takes a lot of pride in how they play and they’re solid back there. Not much gets around them, which is nice to have as a forward because you can rely on your defence to always make the right play.”

GOALIES

There hasn’t been a change in personnel in net, but both goalies have picked their game up a notch from last season.

Starter Carson Bjarnason sports a 2.90 goal-against average and a league-leading .913 save percentage, while backup Ethan Eskit has a 2.87 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage.

“I think we’ve had really solid goaltending for the most part,” Murray said. “Both of them have maybe had a few games where they would like one or two back, but I think overall it;’s been pretty good. It’s important to have two guys who are capable of playing and winning and having the team feel comfortable with him behind them.”

Eskit appeared in 25 games last season and has already made 14 appearances this year, which hints at the larger role he’s carved out. There are a couple of reasons for that, with one of them being Bjarnason’s month-long absence as he plays with Canada at the world junior championship.

The other is to guard the Carberry product’s wear and tear.

“It’s to not have to overwork Barney,” Murray said. “The last couple of years that was probably the case, and it’s nice to have the confidence to go to Ethan. Right now Ethan is in a stretch where he has a great chance to prove himself, that he can be a number one. He’s going to get the better of nine games with Carson away at world juniors, so it’s great opportunity for him to prove he can do it two out of every five games, but in a starting role.”

Eskit has a record of 7-3-1-1, while Bjarnason, who draws the toughest assignments as starter, sits at 8-6-2-0.

• BRADY TURKO: “Our goaltending has been exceptional. I know there have been some nights that when we don’t play well we give up a lot of shots. There are games where we win by a goal but give up 40 shots, and without our goalies, we definitely be in the spot we’re in now.”

• LUKE SHIPLEY: “They’ve been unreal. It also helps when we’re playing for them. There have been a few times where they’ve had shutouts going in to the third and we’re trying extra hard to get them those, because they go a long way for them, but they’re unreal, making big saves when they need to and shutting the door.”

• CALEB HADLAND: “We have Barney, a world-junior level goalie, who is unbelievable, and then we have Eskie backing him up. If we ever need to put Eskie in, we all feel comfortable with him between the pipes. They complement each other real well.”

• JOBY BAUMULLER: “Our goalies have been awesome. They’ve stood on their heads lots of games and battled us out. I think we have one of the top goalie pairs in the Western.”

• ETHAN ESKIT: “It’s been awesome. I think I’ve taken a pretty good step and want to continue to grow obviously, but even for him, he’s having an amazing year too. It really helps the team if we’re giving them a chance to win every night, and that’s honestly how it’s been. We’ve got quite a few wins and we’re looking good in the standings, so it’s been awesome.”

• CARTER KLIPPENSTEIN: “I think it speaks for itself. Barney is of the world juniors and he’s been unreal, and even Eskit backing up, all the games he’s been in he’s been more than solid.”

• NICK JOHNSON: “Obviously Barney at world juniors is a pretty big honour to be able to get invited and do that stuff. He’s a guy who is always ready to go and takes everything serious as a mature man like he should. Whenever he needs a break or is having an off-game and Eskit is in the net, I don’t think anyone feels worried at all. He’s a very, very strong goaltender and would be considered for a starting role on a lot of other teams in my opinion.”

This two-part look at the Wheat Kings season so far continues in Saturday’s edition of The Brandon Sun as Marty Murray and the players ponder special teams, what they can do better as a group, the club’s intangibles and the outlook for the second half.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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