Slobodian eager to face former teammates

Cole Slobodian and the Brandon Wheat Kings are about to face some of his old friends on Wednesday afternoon.

The overage Brandonite was acquired by the Wheat Kings on Oct. 1 from the Portland Winterhawks for a fifth-round pick in 2028 and a third-round pick in 2030, and the American club makes its biennial visit to Assiniboine Credit Union Place on Wednesday for a 4 o’clock puck drop in the annual Remembrance Day game.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Slobodian said. “Obviously it’s a game I’ve been looking forward to since I got traded. It’s crazy it came up this quick but I’m excited.”

Portland (7-6-2-1), which last played on Saturday and beat the visiting Spokane Chiefs 2-1, is opening its swing through the East Division against Brandon (12-6-0-1) on Wednesday.

They have subsequent games against the Regina Pats (Friday), Swift Current Broncos (Saturday), Saskatoon Blades (Tuesday, Nov. 17), Prince Albert Raiders (Friday, Nov. 20) and Moose Jaw Warriors (Saturday, Nov. 21). They don’t play again at home until Nov. 28 when the Everett Silvertips visit on the back half of a home-and-home series.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said it’s not hard to guess what the Winterhawks will bring.

“They’re always a hard-working, high-flying team that wants to play fast,” Murray said. “They stretch the zones out. It’s their first game of the trip so they’re going to be hungry. It’s always important — we’re no different when we go on our West Coast trip — you want to start the trip off on the right foot. Portland is notorious for coming hard out of the gate so we have to expect that on Wednesday.

“It will be a real hard matchup for us.”

Brandon hasn’t scored a power-play goal or outshot Portland in their last three visits to Manitoba, although they did win in 2023.

The six-foot-two, 198-pound Slobodian played his first Western Hockey League game in Brandon on Jan. 10, 2025 when the Winterhawks earned a 6-3 victory. With the unbalanced WHL schedule, they didn’t play here last season, so that 6-3 victory looms large for him.

“There was a lot of excitement coming into this rink,” Slobodian said. “You don’t play at home very often when you’re out in the States. I’ve become more accustomed to it now but it was super exciting coming home the first time.”

In their sole meeting last season, on Jan. 24, 2026 in Portland, the Wheat Kings mounted a comeback after falling behind 2-0, with Luke Mistelbacher scoring 24 seconds into overtime in a 3-2 Brandon victory.

Since being acquired, Slobodian has provided a steadying influence on Brandon’s blue-line while also showing some timely scoring, winning a pair of games in overtime, including on Saturday against the Saskatoon Blades.

The good news for Slobodian and the rest of the team is that Brandon’s battered blue-line will finally have some reinforcements.

Rookie Cruz Jim was away at the World U17 Hockey Challenge for more than two weeks, and Ilari Kapanen and Josh McGregor were both out with injuries, so the team called up 15-year-old Marko Malbasa. He was reassigned to Rink Hockey Academy Winnipeg after Saturday’s game.

Jim returned to Brandon on Sunday after his Canada White fell to Canada Red in the bronze-medal game a day earlier. The Americans beat Czechia to win gold.

“It was obviously super cool to wear the Maple Leaf on your jersey and represent your country with some of the best players in the world and have an opportunity compete on the international stage against the other best teams in the world,” Jim said of the experience. “It’s a special thing. Being there for two weeks, I thought we really came together and it was a really special group.”

The five-foot-nine, 165-pound defenceman, who has a goal and three assists in 13 games in Brandon this season, hasn’t skated with the Wheat Kings since a loss to the Everett Silvertips on Oct. 25.

The six-team international tournament took place in Oakville, Ont., from Nov. 1 to 7, with Canada White going 2-3 overall. Jim had a goal and an assist in five games.

He said playing against other 2010-born players was nice.

“It’s different for sure,” Jim said. “It was maybe a bit higher skill level and more skilled plays but you’re thinking so much about guys being so much bigger than you. Size-wise, it’s a bit more even and different than the Western League for sure.”

He was able to watch some of the Brandon games, although he was busy during that time.

Now it’s time for him to adjust back to playing against bigger and older players, although he’ll do it with Hockey Canada’s advice on his mind.

“They have a standard of excellence there, and you show up for every practice, everything you do, you do it with excellence and you do it to the best of your ability,” Jim said. “I’m trying to bring that back here and keep that same compete and work ethic and grit that they preached and try to apply that here.”

Another bit of good news for the Wheat Kings was the complete return of Finnish defenceman Ilari Kapanen, who hasn’t played since suffering a lower-body injury in the team’s second game, which was against the Regina Pats on Sept. 25. He missed 17 games.

“It’s great,” Kapanen said. “I was away for a long time and I can finally skate with the team.”

The five-foot-11, 170-pound blue-liner had been practising in a red no-contact jersey last week, but has now been cleared to play and could return against Portland.

He has two goals and two assists — and is still tied for 11th in team scoring — after a sensational debut against the Saskatoon Blades on Sept. 18. He admitted it was tough to be a long way from his family and not playing.

“It is a little different to be injured here,” Kapanen said. “When you go home, it’s not your own family and when they went on the road, it was a pretty boring time alone here.”

Brandon faces another U.S. Division opponent on Friday when the Wenatchee Wild visit, and then they heads to Prince Albert to meet the Raiders on Saturday.

The Wheat Kings have gone 5-4-0-1 in their last 10 games, but still sit in second in the Eastern Conference, two points back of the Red Deer Rebels and two up on the Medicine Hat Tigers.

For a club with high aspirations, it’s been a disappointing stretch.

“We’ve obviously struggled a bit since coming back from our B.C. road trip so we’re looking to get back on track,” Slobodian said. “I think we have it in this group, we have it in this room, so it’s just a matter of finding it now.”

Murray added his club can find that success if they spend more time doing the things they need to and less time in the lulls that have characterized their play of late.

“I want to see consistency throughout the game,” Murray said. “We’ve seen it in spurts. It’s never going to be a 60-minute game. It’s a little bit of a cliche but we need more consistency in our game where we can maybe possess the puck a little bit more throughout the game.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

WEDNESDAY

Brandon Wheat Kings vs Portland Winterhawks 4 p.m. at Assiniboine Credit Union Place.

3:30 p.m. (91.5 FM): 4 p.m. (YouTube)

WHEAT KINGS

Record: 12-6-0-1, 25 points.

Players to watch:

Kris Muissu (19gp, 13g, 8a, 21pts).

Chase Surkan (19gp, 8g, 12a, 20pts).

Jaxon Jacobson (19gp, 6g, 13a, 19pts).

Goalies:

Filip Ruzicka (8-5-0-0, 3.26 gaa, .902 pct).

Ryley Budd (4-0-0-1, 2.36 gaa, .,931 pct).

Key injuries: D Ilari Kapanen, D Josh McGregor.

Power play: 19.1 per cent (13th in WHL).

Penalty killing: 79.2 per cent (15th in WHL).

Total goals for/against: 60-60.

Home record: 6-3-0-0.

Last 10 games: 5-4-0-1.

Head to head vs. Portland: 0-0-0-0.

WINTERHAWKS

Record: 7-6-2-1, 17 points.

Players to watch:

Jordan Duguay (16gp, 6g, 10a, 16pts).

Luke Wilfley (16gp, 4g, 6a, 10pts).

Will McLaughlin (15gp, 1g, 9a, 10pts).

Goalies:

Ondřej Štěbeták (5-3-1-1, 2.65 gaa, .922 pct).

Cruz Chase (2-3-1-0, 3.02 gaa, .907 pct).

Key injuries: D Max Psenicka.

Power play: 15.2 per cent (19th in WHL).

Penalty killing: 82.8 per cent (5th in WHL).

Total goals for/against: 44-47.

Road record: 3-2-1-1.

Last 10 games: 4-4-2-0.

Head to head vs. Brandon: 0-0-0-0.

 

Here is a look at the three most recent games between the Brandon Wheat Kings and Portland Winterhawks in Manitoba.

2024-25

Portland 6, Brandon 3

• Date: Jan. 10, 2025

• BWK goal scorers: Nolan Flamand, Dylan Ronald, Jaxon Jacobson.

• Portland scorers: Alex Weiermair (2), Ryder Thompson, Reed Brown, Jordan Duguay, Ryan Miller.

• BWK goalie: Carson Bjarnason.

• Portland goalie: Ondřej Štěbeták.

• Shots: 43-32 POR.

• PP: BWK 0-3. POR 0-3.

• Attendance: 3,522.

• RECAP: Russell’s Thompson tied the game for Portland and former Brandon prospect Brown put them up a goal. After Jacobson tied it 3-3 late in the second period, the Winterhawks scored all three goals in the third period, highlighted by Miller’s shortie.

2022-23

Brandon 3, Portland 2

• Date: Jan. 6, 2023.

• BWK goal scorers: Nate Danielson, Brett Hyland, Quinn Mantei.

• Portland scorers: Jack O’Brien, James Stefan.

• BWK goalie: Carson Bjarnason.

• Portland goalie: Jan Špunar.

• Shots: 36-25 POR.

• PP: BWK 0-4. POR 1-7.

• Attendance: 2,595.

• RECAP: Brandon scored exactly 14:41 into the first and second periods, and Mantei gave the hosts a 3-0. Portland roared back with goals five minutes apart in the third period, but couldn’t find the tying goal despite 55 seconds of power-play time to end the game.

2018-19

Portland 4, Brandon 3

• Date: Jan. 8, 2019.

• BWK goal scorers: Ben McCartney (2), Braden Schneider.

• Portland scorers: Michal Kvasnica, Seth Jarvis, Jaydon Dureau, Joachim Blichfeld.

• BWK goalie: Jiri Patera.

• Portland goalie: Shane Farkas.

• Shots: 51-35 POR.

• PP: BWK 0-3. POR 0-3.

• Attendance: 3,110.

• RECAP: McCartney scored twice in the opening 3:45 of the game and Brandon seemed to be rolling, but the game was tied after 20 minutes and the visitors already had 22 shots on net. Portland went up 4-2 midway through the third on Blichfeld’s 37th goal, which proved to be the winner.

» Bergson