Wheat Kings prepare for WHL leaders

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This article was published 29/12/2023 (652 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Wheat Kings renew acquaintances with the Saskatoon Blades tonight at Westoba Place as the teams prepare for seven matchups in the next 74 days.

Saskatoon (24-8-2-0) sits atop the Western Hockey League with 50 points, with Brandon (17-12-4-1) holding down third place in the Eastern Conference.

“They’re at the top of the league standings for a reason,” Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said. “They’ve got a real strong team. Their top end is as good as anybody in the league and their supporting cast is real strong, too. It will be a good test for us. We’ll have to be at our best to give ourselves a chance.”

Saskatoon is playing shorthanded, with Fraser Minten skating for Canada at the world juniors and Tanner Molendyk, Vaughn Watterodt and Carter Herman all out week-to-week.

“We’ve only played them once, and we probably played one of our best games of the season against them,” defenceman Luke Shipley said. “They’ve added some guys, and obviously their two best players are away and that helps us out, but they’re still a deep team. It’s going to be a good game and a tough task for us.”

If it seems like Brandon hasn’t seen much of Saskatoon this season, you’re right. They’ve met just once so far, a 2-1 Wheat Kings victory on Oct. 28.

Brandon’s Quinn Mantei and Roger McQueen scored in the first period and Saskatoon’s Trevor Wong sniped in the third period, with Wheat Kings goalie Carson Bjarnason making 27 saves and Blades netminder Austin Elliott turning aside 40 shots in front of a season-high crowd of 4,824 in Brandon.

They play again on Monday in Saskatoon, and then face off in Saskatoon on Feb. 4, Feb. 23 and March 12, and in Brandon on Feb. 19 and March 2 to complete their eight-game season series.

The Wheat Kings may want to avoid time on special teams against the Blades, who have a better power play (23.6 per cent to 18.6 per cent) and better penalty killing (84.6 per cent to 78.1 per cent).

Other than Wednesday’s 5-4 overtime victory facing the visiting Regina Pats when the Wheat Kings were blanked in five power-play chances and gave up two shorthanded goals, both units have seen improvement in the last month.

“I think a big reason we’ve had success in this home stand has been our special teams,” Murray said. “Our power play has scored some timely goals and our PK has done a really good job of not only keeping the puck out of the net but we’ve scored some shorthanded goals.

“It’s a huge part of the game and the momentum we’ve created on special teams has a lot to do with that.”

In the Pats game, the Wheat Kings trailed 3-1 after 40 minutes but had a three-goal onslaught begin on the penalty kill when former Regina forward Matteo Michels scored a shorthanded goal six minutes into the third period. The Pats tied the game late but Jayden Wiens notched the overtime winner for the Wheat Kings.

Characteristically for the first game after the long Christmas break, the play was uneven at times as the players tried to rediscover their game conditioning.

“Personally, I was just trying to get my legs back in the first couple of periods,” Shipley said. “We had a great comeback. It’s nice to get the first one after Christmas and keep the home stand momentum going.”

After two practices and a game, Murray is happy with how his players handled the time off. He said the scrambled play was to be expected after the break.

“There was some rust there and the execution and things like that weren’t maybe at the top of our game,” Murray said. “Overall, I’m pretty happy with the practices coming out. In the game last night there were some ups and downs but we hung in there until the end and showed some good character in the third.”

Tonight’s game is the final instalment in an eight-game home stand for the team that started on Dec. 1. The Wheat Kings have emerged with six wins and just one loss, a 4-3 defeat by the Moose Jaw Warriors in the final game before Christmas which snapped Brandon’s six-game winning streak.

“You get a little greedy,” Murray said. “The one that got away from us, the Moose Jaw game, getting scored on in the last two minutes was tough, but overall 6-1 on this eight-game home stand is pretty good. Hopefully, we can finish with a strong one.”

During the home stand, Brandon has outscored its opponents 37-20. Shipley said the team keyed on the stretch of games and has played well.

“It’s great,” Shipley said. “It’s a massive part of our season. I’ve never had a home stand as long as this. These are the games you need to win. When you’re at home, you’re rested and sleeping in your own bed and not coming in off a bus. We’ve done a great job of winning these games and building momentum for the season.”

Murray has noticed improvement in another aspect of the game, which has to be encouraging after the team found ways to lose earlier in the season.

“It hasn’t been perfect by any means, but for me I think there is a sense of belief,” Murray said. “Even being down 3-1 after two last night, our guys still had the belief we could win and obviously Matteo’s goal was big to get us some momentum. I think it’s timely goal scoring, our goals against has been down in this stretch even though we gave up four last night.

“Our attention to detail has been much better and we’re trending the right way.”

After tonight, Brandon heads out on the road to visit Regina on Saturday and Saskatoon on Monday afternoon before embarking on a six-game home stand. During that stretch, they face the Vancouver Giants (Jan. 6), Victoria Royals (Jan. 9), Swift Current Broncos (Jan. 12), Prince Albert Raiders (Jan. 14), Lethbridge Hurricanes (Jan. 20) and Medicine Hat Tigers (Jan. 21).

After that, they’ll be on the road for 16 of their final 25 games to complete the 68-game season.

The good news for Brandon is they’ve already won as many home games as last season, with a 12-4-2-0 mark this season after going 12-16-5-1 during the 2022-23 campaign.

“It’s having the momentum from our crowd and being at home and other teams having travel and making it a tough place to play,” Shipley said. “That’s been a goal and something we’ve talked about since even last year. We do things well and feed on our crowd.”

ICINGS: The Prince Albert Raiders reassigned 20-year-old netminder Chase Coward on Thursday. In 16 games with the team, Coward posted a 6-8-0-0 record, a 3.52 goals-against average and an .882 save percentage. He was acquired from the Red Deer Rebels in the offseason for a fifth-round pick in 2024. At the same time, Prince Albert added 18-year-old goaltender Nathan Preston, who had been playing for the Princeton Posse of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League.

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