Wheat Kings face must-win battle with Hitmen

With six games left in their Western Hockey League season and four points to make up on the Calgary Hitmen, the Brandon Wheat Kings have a tall task ahead of them.

The final charge to the regular season finish line begins tonight in Calgary, with head coach and general manager Marty Murray acknowledging the team is essentially in must-win mode for their last six outings if they want to secure home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs.

“I would think so,” Murray said. “That Wednesday night game is going to be huge. Head to head is a four-point game and we still have Saskatoon in the rearview mirror too so we just have to take it game by game here.

“That’s what I told the guys after the game (on Saturday), that Wednesday is going to be the biggest game of the year and we have to be ready to play.”

Calgary won both games in Brandon, 3-1 on Nov. 2 and 5-4 on Feb. 6, with the Wheat Kings earning a 3-2 overtime decision at the Saddledome on Dec. 19.

“You just have to lock down their systems,” team captain Caleb Hadland said. “They’re a very systems-based team. They’ll just work hard and play together. We just have to play the right way, get pucks out and score like we have been.”

Rugged rookie defenceman Max Lavoie said his team knows how to beat them, it’s just a matter of delivering.

“They’re very structured,” Lavoie said. “They move the puck well but if we come out gritty and use our size against them and we play connected, I think we’ll do a number on them.”

Brandon has unfortunate schedule in the last two weeks of the season, with five of their six games on the road. After facing Calgary tonight to kick off their Alberta trip, they skate against the eighth-place Red Deer Rebels on Friday and the third-place Edmonton Oil Kings on Saturday.

“We have a tough road trip with Calgary and Edmonton at the front and the back and Red Deer — pretty greasy — in the middle,” Hadland said. “It’s a tough trip with a lot of must-win games and we just have to go out there and work hard and play our game.”

All three Alberta teams are trying to lock down spots — Edmonton has Calgary chasing them, Red Deer is one point up on Moose Jaw for eighth place and Calgary is trying to fend off Brandon — and have plenty to play for.

“It’s going to be a dog fight,” Murray said. “Calgary has the same thing at stake that we do, Red Deer is trying to make the playoffs and Edmonton is trying to hold onto that three seed and get back to the top of their game. It’s going to be a tough road trip, so hopefully the guys can get a little rest, get the batteries recharged.”

Brandon last played on Friday and Saturday when they handed a 4-3 overtime loss and a 5-3 defeat to the Swift Current Broncos. The players certainly understand the task at hand.

“It was huge,” rookie forward Jimmy Egan said of the weekend. “It was four big points and we got the job done. I’m happy about that.”

Hadland returned to the lineup on Saturday, and while Murray talked about easing him back in, the captain had his own schedule, delivering a pair of big hits in the first period and generally being his normal mid-season version of miserable to play against.

“It was so nice,” Hadland said. “It’s kind of annoying sitting in the stands watching the boys play. I was real excited to get back out there.”

Three Wheat Kings are done for the season — forwards Carter Klippenstein and Easton Odut and defenceman Merrek Arpin — while forwards Joby Baumuller and Ryan Boyce and goalie Jayden Kraus are all on the mend.

Boyce aggravated an existing lower-body and left the game after his second shift on Saturday, which dropped the team back down to 10 forwards with Gunnar Gleasman serving a one-game suspension. It’s been that kind of season for Brandon, which hasn’t iced its full lineup once this season.

Even so, they are 8-2-0-0 in their last 10 games.

“It’s the next-man-up mentality,” Lavoie said. “I think we have a very deep team and everybody who has been called upon to step up has done a very good job. I have a lot of confidence in everybody’s ability to play top to the bottom of the lineup.”

Even if Brandon beats Calgary tonight, they’ll need a little bit of help to overtake them.

While the Wheat Kings might normally be happy the Hitmen have three games left with the Oil Kings, their optimism would be misplaced this season. Calgary has won four of the five games between the teams, and with six points separating them, could actually vault over Edmonton with a strong finish and some help from Oil Kings opponents.

That makes tonight’s game that much more important.

“They’re huge games, especially the game on Wednesday,” Egan said. “It’s going to be big. We have to be ready to go and hopefully get some big points.”

While Brandon has continued to score, the hitch in their giddy-up potentially lay at the other end of the rink. After all, an old cliche suggests that defence wins championships, and Brandon has been outshot in seven of their last eight games, and tied Swift Current in the other one.

With Kraus out of the lineup, Ruzicka has been very good, now sporting a .908 save percentage, but he’s also had to face 18 or more shots in a period seven times in the last seven games.

“I think we’ve got a lot better, to be honest,” Lavoie said. “We’re winning games and stuff but we’re relying on our goalies too much, giving up too many shots. Filip has been outstanding these last few weeks and before playoffs, I have full confidence we’ll be able to tidy that up and keep the shots from the other team down.”

If they can manage it, the payoff could be huge. After all, Hadland said the difference between four and five adds up to an awful lot.

“Any time you can finish ahead of somebody, especially in that four-five spot, it’s home-ice advantage or not and playing in front of your fans and travel is a lot better when you’re in four,” Hadland said. “It’s a big part of the game. We’re looking for four and chasing them still and hopefully we’ll get it on this trip.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

 

Here are the teams in fourth, fifth and sixth place in the Western Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.

CALGARY

• 35-18-8-1.

• 4th, 79 points.

• Six games remaining.

• HOME: Brandon (tonight), Edmonton (Sunday), Lethbridge (Saturday, March 21).

• ROAD: Red Deer (Saturday), Edmonton (Wednesday, March 18), Edmonton (Sunday, March 22).

BRANDON

• 37-24-1-0.

• 5th, 75 points.

• Six games remaining.

• HOME: Regina (Saturday, March 21).

• ROAD: Calgary (tonight), Red Deer (Friday), Edmonton (Saturday), Saskatoon (Wednesday, March 18), Regina (Friday, March 20).

SASKATOON

• 32-25-4-2.

• 6th, 70 points.

• Five games remaining.

• HOME: Swift Current (Friday), Brandon (Wednesday, March 18), Prince Albert (Saturday, March 21).

• ROAD: Swift Current (Saturday), Prince Albert (Friday, March 20).