U15 Wheat Kings determined to keep on gas pedal

The Brandon Wheat Kings couldn’t have possibly had a better first half of the season — well, at least on paper.

The last undefeated team remaining in the Winnipeg U15 AAA Hockey League is now up to 16 wins to lead the entire league, yet head coach Dave Lewis still isn’t satisfied with the status quo — he believes his team has more to give and insists on pushing the standard until his club wins what matters most — the last game of the season.

“Obviously, the record is one thing, but more importantly, we’re always trying to look at benchmarks of where we are. The record is not as important as the growth that we see throughout the course of the season,” said Lewis. “I think we’re pretty happy with where we are, but our goal certainly isn’t to go undefeated this year, our goal is to win a provincial championship because in the end, all people remember is who won the last game of the year.

“If we lose some games along the way and we learn some things from losing, that’s OK. But, we can’t lose because we weren’t prepared or we weren’t willing to work. There’s certainly a lot of room for improvement yet, and as the season goes on, the games always get tighter and get better.”

Expectations were high for the Wheaties coming into this season following an early exit to the post-season last year when they failed to qualify for the final four. It was the first time in three years Brandon hadn’t raised the provincial championship banner, and it left a major sting among the group of returning players.

Luckily, that’s also what’s helped propel them into the position they are in now.

Lewis said a key piece behind that success starts with hard work and having a willingness to work your tail off night in and night out.

“That’s the kind of thing we try and preach with the guys is, you can’t always dictate the result, what you can control is your work ethic and your compete factor,” he said. “If you do that, if you lose with a good work ethic, a good compete, we’re OK with that, but if you don’t go out and work and you don’t compete and you lose, well then we have a problem. That’s been really our bread and butter this year, along with now trying to teach them how to play with some structure and play as a team.”

Considering the amount of talent and skill on this roster, it’s no surprise Brandon has a plus-103 scoring differential to go along with averaging more than eight goals per game, but there’s a case to be made the way they play is just as responsible for their offensive output.

And it all starts in the defensive zone.

The Wheat Kings are able to turn pucks over thanks to their stifling defensive zone coverage, which is almost too overwhelming for many teams because of how aggressive it is. When they’re playing their cards right, the puck carrier on the opposing team is only able to access the perimeter, and once they are able to force the puck over, they can break out the puck with ease to go from defence to offence in a flash.

Brandon does a solid job of clogging up the neutral zone to negate chances off the rush, and in the offensive zone, they employ a fast and rugged forecheck to retrieve the puck back and then get as many shots to the net as possible. While they’re a group of 13- and 14-year-olds, thanks to Lewis and his coaching staff, they play a mature style of game, which is what helps set them apart from the rest of the pack.

“They’re a group of kids who like to work hard and compete, and they’re doing a really good job of buying into the team. Understanding the team is more important than an individual, things like keeping the shift length short so we can continue to push the pace throughout the entire game, not just for 20 minutes, but for 60 minutes,” said Lewis. “We always talk about the faster we can exit our end of the rink, the more time we get in the other end, we call it the fun zone. So, we can have lots of fun down there, but that’s always a challenge, especially with U15 because they’re always thinking offence, so getting them to think defence first and usually good offence follows.”

Special teams have also been a big piece in their undefeated record.

Brandon’s power play currently sits in fourth place in the league, running at 22 per cent thanks to assistant coach Chris Johnston, who’s in charge of the man advantage units. Johnston, who’s been around the game for around 30 years as a coach and player — including four seasons as a player with the Wheat Kings from 1990-1994 — practises many different scenarios with the players but mainly focuses on the one-three-one formation, which has proven to leave guys in prime scoring opportunities.

The penalty kill has been a brighter spot, ranking third overall with an 87.7 per cent success rate. The credit can be given to Lewis’ son Ty, who’s learned all sorts of strategies while down a man during his time with the Wheat Kings and in the Colorado Avalanche organization with the American Hockey League’s Eagles.

“He’s taught our guys and myself how to do different schemes, some teams have seen them before, and some schemes they haven’t seen before, so we’re constantly trying to challenge other teams to come up with new ways to try and beat our schemes,” Lewis said. “It’s just nice having those two guys (Johnston and Ty) there that have so much knowledge that they can pass along to the kids. I think it really gives us an upper hand over teams because sometimes they’re game separators.”

Lewis admitted he expected his squad to be hovering around the top of the standings as a top-four team heading into the season, but a 16-0 record nearing Christmas break wouldn’t have been on his bingo card. And while it’s nice to pull up the standings and see the Wheat Kings at the top of the list, he knows that only puts a bigger target on their backs going into the second half, so they will need to be ready to get every team’s best.

“When you have a zero behind your loss record, everyone is going to try and beat you,” he said. “You become the hunted now, and you can’t come up with a mediocre effort now because if you do, they’re going to beat you. You can’t be scared of it. You have to use it as a motivator. We know the other teams, especially the Winnipeg teams, will all continue to push to get better, so we understand that we have to continually get better ourselves to try and stay above the curve.”

The Wheat Kings currently lead the West Division by seven points with a game in hand over the second-place Pembina Valley Hawks, who carry a 10-2-2-3 record. Outside the division, the closest team to Brandon is the Eastman Selects, who are 15-2-1-1 with 32 points also, but with three more games played. The Wheat Kings played them in early December and swept them in a home-and-home set with 7-5 and 3-0 victories.

Brandon will close out the month with two games on the road this weekend against the Yellowhead Chiefs and Parkland Rangers before going on Christmas break, where they won’t return until Friday, Jan. 9, when they begin a long stretch at home with a game against Southwest.

In the meantime, though, they will be focusing on their upcoming match against the Chiefs, where 13-year-old Kale Nicol will undoubtedly be leading the charge up front.

Brandon’s rookie forward not only leads his team in scoring but also the entire league, and by a country mile, with 46 goals and 75 points in just 16 games. He’s put everyone on notice, including the Wheat Kings U18 club, who called him up to play in a game over the weekend, making him the first ever call-up to do so in their 13-year-old season.

Jaxon Jacobson also played for the Wheat Kings U18 squad at age 13, but did so during his 14-year-old season because of his December birthday.

In his debut, Nicol scored a goal, which was assisted by his older brother Reid, en route to a 7-0 victory over the Central Plains Capitals at J&G Homes Arena on Saturday. Even playing against athletes three and four years older than him, he still didn’t look out of place. Lewis knows he’s a unique talent.

“I’ve known Kale since he was probably eight years old, so I’ve seen him mature through the years, and I always knew how special of a player he was,” said Lewis. “He’s a tremendous player, and I knew this year he’d probably have a lot of success, but obviously the success he’s having is way above what multiple people, including myself, expected. It’s a credit to him, his work ethic, his skill sets, and his attitude, and it’s been a pleasure to work with him and watch him develop as a player.

“With his skill sets and his hockey IQ, he’s going to have success throughout the rest of the year and obviously going forward wherever he plays.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com