History awaits Wheat Kings tonight

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This article was published 23/05/2010 (5763 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are few times in a player’s life when they can truly say they have a chance to make hockey history.

But tonight is one of those rarest of rare opportunities for the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The host team in this MasterCard Memorial Cup, the Wheat Kings have battled their way into the final game to face the defending champion Windsor Spitfires — the pre-tournament favourites to win back-to-back titles — in what is sure to be an electric atmosphere at Westman Place.

For the host committee, the city and Wheat King fans, it is nothing short of the dream scenario. For the Wheat Kings, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to capture the Memorial Cup, the crowning jewel of major junior hockey, for the first time in franchise history and to do it right here on home ice.

“We’ve visualized this game for a long time,” said Wheat Kings head coach/GM Kelly McCrimmon, who was a player the last time Brandon advanced to the Memorial Cup final back in 1979, dropping a 2-1 overtime heartbreaker to the Peterborough Petes.

“We’ve know since October of 2008 that we were going to be the Memorial Cup hosts, so I’m sure every guy has gone through this one many times in his mind. And players watch these games on TV every year, so this is a game that guys play out over and over again and now that we’ve earned the opportunity to play in the game, we need to focus on being our best when our best is required.”

The Wheat Kings will need nothing less than the game of their lives against the powerhouse Spitfires, who are riding a remarkable 11-game winning streak, including beating Brandon, the Calgary Hitmen and the Moncton Wildcats in their three Memorial Cup round-robin matchups after sweeping the Barrie Colts in the OHL’s championship series.

But the Wheat Kings are anxious to get another crack at the Spitfires — who hammered Brandon 9-3 to open the tournament — and are riding a new wave of confidence after beating the WHL champion Hitmen 5-4 in an overtime thriller in Friday’s semifinal.

“It’s awesome,” said Wheat Kings co-captain Matt Calvert, who turned down a pro contract offer from the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets to return home to Brandon for precisely this opportunity. “It’s obviously a dream come true for me, but there’s one more win that we need to get and that’s what our focus is on right now and the guys in the room want it bad, real bad, right now.”

With so much at stake, there is no downplaying the monumental moment ahead of them. But McCrimmon is hoping his players embrace and enjoy the opportunity.

“If you get too hung up on it, I think that it can almost become overwhelming,” McCrimmon said. “And at the end of the day, it’s a game and how fortunate are we to get the chance to play in a game like this, it’s just a chance of a lifetime for our guys. So yeah, we want it to be fun, we want to play well, we want to play hard and we want to enjoy it.”

Brandon has battled for the Memorial Cup four times before, coming up short in 1949, 1979, 1995 and 1996.

“In Brandon, we have had a long history … (but) the franchise hasn’t won a Memorial Cup,” McCrimmon said. “So it would be a first and based on that it separates and identifies you as a team that did something no other team before them did.”

Tonight we find out if this is indeed a team of destiny.