Watt, U17 Wheat Kings look to close out Bruins

Only one win stands between the Brandon Wheat Kings and a return to last year’s downfall.

The Wheat Kings (5-2) have a chance to clinch a berth into the Winnipeg Hockey League U17 AAA final with a Game 4 win in their best-of-five semifinal clash against the Winnipeg Bruins (4-2) at J&G Homes Arena this evening at 8 p.m.

Brandon, which leads the series 2-1 following a 5-4 victory on Saturday, 7-3 loss on Sunday and then a 5-3 triumph on Tuesday, also trudged its way to the final last season before falling at the hands of a Bruins sweep.

This time, they hold the reins over the Bruins, however, Wheaties forward Brayden Watt knows the job’s not finished.

“It’s been a hard-fought battle between both teams,” said Watt on Thursday. “Every game’s been a battle and really physical, but now we’re really looking to close it out on Friday in Brandon.

“I think if we just focus, good things will happen, and if it doesn’t go the way we want, we just got to focus on the next game and hopefully we can get it done and then go from there.”

Watt and the Wheat Kings are hoping to build off a fairly complete effort in Game 3, when they got off to a 3-1 lead at the end of the first frame thanks to all four lines rolling and creating turnovers in the attacking zone with their ramped-up physical play. The next 40 they defended as best they could and ended up trading a pair of goals with the Bruins to take a commanding series lead back to Brandon.

All three games have been high-scoring contests, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if tonight was any different with all the offensive firepower on display.

During the season, Winnipeg’s offence completely conquered the scoring race, as Joel Vermette (51 goals, 96 points), Will Owens (31g, 76p), Cooper Jones (26g, 66p) and Gavin Fay (24g, 59p) all finished as the league’s highest point getters.

And while the Wheat Kings also have plenty of skill up front with forwards such as Watt (19g, 49p), Etienne Visser (16g, 44p), and Ty Aldcroft (23g, 42p), they’re statistically not as dominant as their opponents. They’ve had to lean more on their depth as a result, but they’ve also had to adjust their style of game to more of a track-meet, barnburner pace to keep up with the Bruins all-stars.

It’s been working out for them so far.

“The Bruins, they’re very offensive obviously having the top scorers in the league that are just producing every night, so we just gotta really try and go back and forth with those guys, so we gotta try and put the puck in the net and play smart hockey.

“I want to shut those guys down, but it’s obviously pretty tough when you have 95 points in a season. They’re good players and you just got to live with that, so we’ve been just really trying to match their game and I think we’ve done a pretty good job. Our offence has been really good and I think we’re just a really deep team.”

Watt led his squad in scoring during the season and continues to do so in the playoffs, as he’s racked up four goals and 13 points through seven contests. His linemate Visser also has 13 points, including seven goals, while his left-winger Ashton Shields has chalked up five goals and six points.

In humble fashion, Watt credited his linemates for his strong numbers on the score sheet.

“I’m having some success, but it’s also my linemates that are making great plays to me,” he said. “You look at the leaderboard and I’m up there, but it’s also not just me, it’s a lot of my teammates helping me.

“We play really well together. I think we always know where each other are, we work hard in the corners and always get to the net, just doing the little things and it’s been showing as we’ve been getting pretty lucky and have had quite a good playoffs us 3, so we have pretty good chemistry.”

The trio have also shown their magic up with the U18 club as well, combining for nine points after getting called up for a handful of games due to injury. Aldcroft also registered a point in one game.

Watt, a 200-foot playmaker with a strong shot and hockey sense, was drafted in the eighth round of the Western Hockey League draft last year by his hometown club. He said his time spent with Travis Mealy’s U18 team has helped him grow his game even further.

“It was a valuable experience,” Watt said. “I think it really upped my game to be like, ‘Wow, I gotta get to that level to play with those guys against those guys.’ It just gave me some confidence going back into U17 and I think that my game’s kind of stepped up after getting called up.”

He’s going to need to be a big-time player this evening if the Wheat Kings want to avoid going back to Winnipeg for Game 5, but it also wouldn’t hurt to stay out of the box.

Brandon has piled up 40 penalty minutes this series and have burned more than a few times, especially in Game 2, when they allowed a pair while already down 3-1. Its penalty kill is currently clicking at 67 per cent in the post-season, which is nowhere near where they would like it to be, yet they’ve still come this far.

Watt believes he and his team need to clean up the penalty trouble or else they will eventually bite the dust.

“We just gotta stay out of the box, that’s been what’s killing us lately,” he said. “Every game’s had lots of penalties. We just have to not take the dumb penalties. We just gotta go out there, finish our checks, be physical, but also not be stupid and take any penalties because in Game 2, that’s pretty much what lost us the game, was penalties, so we gotta be smart.”

Luckily for the Wheat Kings, the Bruins haven’t been saints in the retaliation department either. They’ve also racked up 40 penalty minutes in this series and allowed four goals while shorthanded, so it will certainly be a storyline to follow tonight.

If Brandon comes out on top, it will have another crack at the final, but this time against the Eastman Selects, who finished first in the regular season and swept their semifinal matchup against the Winnipeg Thrashers. If not, Game 5 will be at Southdale Community Centre on Sunday at 6 p.m.

“Obviously it’d be a big accomplishment. I don’t know if very many people thought we would be where we are right now, but we’re a family in that dressing room, and we’re all really close, so I think that’s why we are where we are, and I think we deserve to be where we are right now,” Watt said.

“With these guys, I just feel so comfortable and I just really don’t want this season to end because we have such a great group.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com