Mantei, Wheaties prepare for Rebels

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This article was published 28/01/2025 (234 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nobody may have been more surprised that Quinn Mantei was named the Western Hockey League’s player of the week on Monday than Quinn Mantei.

The 19-year-old Brandon Wheat Kings captain from Weyburn had a goal and seven assists in three games as his club finished its swing through the B.C. Division with a 3-2 loss to the Prince George Cougars.

“It’s pretty cool,” Mantei said. “Any time you get a little bit of individual recognition is always nice. That’s not my goal definitely but it was pretty cool to have a good week. It would have been even better if we could have pulled out the last one in Prince George.”

Mantei received a text he had earned the honour and confirmed it on Instagram.

The only other Wheat King to win the award this season was forward Roger McQueen on Sept. 23.

Eighth-place Brandon (22-16-3-2) finally returns to Westoba Place tonight when they host ninth-place Red Deer Rebels (16-24-4-2). They haven’t played at home since a 6-3 loss to the Portland Winterhawks on Jan. 10, with a seven-game road trip that saw them play teams in every division except their own.

While the Wheat Kings went 3-4-0-0, all three games they lost by two goals included an empty netter, and the other game was a one-goal defeat.

“I think the biggest thing that I liked was the consistency of the group,” Mantei said. “I thought every night we brought our A game, whether it ended up in our favour or not. I thought we played pretty well for the most part and we created a lot. There were a couple of games where we couldn’t put it in the back of the net and that cost us a little bit but overall I thought it was pretty consistent for once.”

The team stayed overnight in Prince George after Friday’s game and then made the 19-hour trip home, arriving on Sunday morning.

They returned to practice on Tuesday afternoon with an unusual sight: They had 20 skaters on the ice, and are now missing just McQueen and forward Easton Odut after defenceman Merrek Arpin returned to the team from a pressing family matter.

That means the Wheat Kings will have two healthy scratches tonight, which has happened only a couple of times all season.

Like Brandon earlier in the season, Red Deer has been beset by an avalanche of injuries. Defenceman Jace Weir and forwards Kasper Pikkarainen and Jaxon Fuder are out long term, while impactful forwards Kalan Lind and Ollie Josephson are both listed as day-to-day.

Meanwhile, goaltender Peyton Shore and forward Jhett Larson are freshly returned from injury.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said his team will have to look past that fact.

“They’re a hard-working, competitive team,” Murray said. “They’ve been kind of riddled with injuries so I’m not sure where that stands with them but in order to beat any team in this league, you have to bring your work boots. The foundation of Red Deer’s game is that they play hard so we’re going to have to make sure we’re ready to match that intensity.”

The teams have met twice this season, with Red Deer coming back at home to earn a 4-2 victory on Nov. 30, and Brandon responding with a 5-1 win at home on Dec. 6.

“You can always expect a hard-fought game against those guys,” Mantei said with a chuckle. “They come to work, they forecheck hard, and you know exactly what you’re going to get out of them. You have to give them credit, they work and they have some skill too so they’ll be a good test.”

The Wheat Kings currently sit eighth in the Eastern Conference standings, but have played the fewest games and have up to four games in hand on some teams. They are currently 11 points up on ninth-place Red Deer, and just four points behind the fifth-place Edmonton Oil Kings.

“We have 25 games left in the regular season so there are playoff implications up for grabs every night,” Murray said. “Given the fact of how tight everything is, every game is like a playoff game right now and starting at home against a team that is chasing us in the standings is important.”

Brandon has three games this week, all against teams behind them in the standings. After tonight’s game, they head out on the road to visit the 11th-place Moose Jaw Warriors on Friday and the 10th-place Regina Pats on Saturday.

“It’s huge,” Mantei said of the next few days. “If you look at the standings, I think we have a couple games in hand against a lot of teams ahead of us and we’re back maybe a few points. Especially when you’re playing teams below you in the standings, you have to capitalize on that and try to gain some ground.”

As well as Brandon has played on the road lately, it’s been the opposite at home.

The Wheat Kings have dropped their last four games at Westoba Place dating to Dec. 17, and have been outscored 23-12. Their home record now stands at 10-6-3-2: Around the league, 14 teams have earned more than Brandon’s 25 points at home.

“It’s very important,” Murray said. “We’ve laid some eggs here as of late. We need to be a good home team. On the road, we have to travel quite a bit, and when we’re at home, we’re the beneficiary of teams having to travel to get here. We need to start the game on time and play at our pace and not wait around to see what the other team is going to do.”

ICINGS: Physical therapist Zach Hartwick didn’t make the trip west: He stayed home and became the proud father of a daughter instead … Longtime Wheat Kings employee Chris (Falko) Falkevitch, who served as the team’s director of game day operations and community relations, has moved on to a new job with the Brandon University Bobcats.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson