Wheat Kings emerge from injuries, flu

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/03/2024 (777 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Based on their luck in the last month, a plague of locusts may be next for the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The Western Hockey League club, which hosts the Prince Albert Raiders tonight and the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday at Westoba Place, has faced a bevy of injuries in February, and on its most recent trip, added the flu to the equation.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said it’s been quite a stretch as his club managed to earn four of six possible points against the Raiders and Blades.

“We had a couple of guys get sick prior to the Saskatchewan trip on the way there and during the weekend,” Murray said. “You know how it is on the bus for that long, it’s just a matter of time. It’s unfortunate, especially with our body count, but it’s another reason I’m happy we got through the Saskatchewan trip.”

In the last month, the team has lost forwards Nick Johnson, Roger McQueen, Hayden Wheddon and Joby Baumuller plus defenceman Andrei Maliavan and goalie Ethan Eskit to injury, along with leading scorer Rylen Roersma to a three-game suspension. Roersma will miss both games on the weekend, but Wheddon, Baumuller, Maliavan and Eskit will be back tonight, with Johnson potentially suiting up next week. McQueen is a bit more of an unknown.

“Rog is still between day to day and week to week, I think,” Murray said. “I think we’ll be real lucky to see him on the Alberta trip.”

Baumuller has been out of the lineup since Feb. 15 after a two-punch knockdown of Moose Jaw Warriors rookie defenceman Connor Schmidt in a 4-2 loss. It was the first fight of Baumuller’s career and he paid for his success with an upper-body injury. The rookie smiled when asked what he learned.

“Maybe not to punch someone that hard,” Baumuller said with a chuckle. “Maybe I have to try some different fighting styles.”

A 16-year-old product of Wilcox, Sask., Baumuller has three goals and four assists in 42 games after posting a goal and two assists in 11 games as a call-up last season.

He said it was difficult to watch the short-staffed club from afar.

“It was pretty hard to be away from the guys,” Baumuller said. “Being away from the dressing room was kind of hard on the road trip. Sitting at home watching them work was kind of hard. To be back is amazing, to get my feet going again. I’m pretty pumped for this weekend.”

Meanwhile, Wheddon was knocked out of the lineup with an upper-body injury on Feb. 10 in a 7-3 loss to the host Raiders. The 18-year-old forward from Stonewall is also thrilled to be back.

“It’s really nice,” Wheddon said. “It feels good. Being out for two weeks and seeing a team short of numbers and playing some games, you want to get back in the lineup as soon as possible.”

The former Edmonton Oil King has three goals and three assists in 36 games this season in an energy role for the Wheat Kings.

The trick for the injured players, none of whom made the most recent road trip, was passing the time. Wheddon admitted it wasn’t easy.

“Me and the injured guys hung out and watched some of the games,” Wheddon said. “We did what we could but obviously it was kind of boring at some times but we tried to do as much as we could to stay ready and support the boys also.”

The Eastern Conference playoff race couldn’t be much more tightly packed around the Wheat Kings.

The fifth-place Red Deer Rebels (30-21-2-6, 68 points) are four up on sixth-place Brandon (29-23-5-1, 64 points). The teams in hot pursuit are seventh-place Prince Albert (28-26-1-3, 60 points), the eighth-place Lethbridge Hurricanes (26-26-5-0, 57 points) and the ninth-place Calgary Hitmen (24-26-7-1, 56 points).

In recent seasons, teams have generally needed about 70 points to make the playoffs, although Brandon missed the 2018-19 post-season by two points when it finished with 70.

“You look at the standings and how close it is, and every game is a playoff game,” Murray said. “They’re going to be highly contested in both games.”

Saskatoon has run away from the pack, with their 89 points six up on the Prince George Cougars for the league lead. Along with the Western Conference’s Portland Winterhawks and Everett Silvertips, just four teams have officially booked their spot in the post-season.

Everyone is still in the hunt, so with just four home games remaining in Brandon’s final 10 contests, the importance of every point is magnified.

“They’re huge,” Wheddon said. “We’ve got 10 games left in the regular season and it’s a tight race coming to the end of the season. These are huge points coming up here.”

After this weekend, the Wheat Kings have three weeks remaining in the regular season.

Next week, they head out to Alberta for a tough stretch of four games in five days, with visits to the Medicine Hat Tigers on March 5, Calgary on March 6, Lethbridge on March 8 and the Swift Current Broncos on March 9.

In the second week, they visit Saskatoon on March 12 and host Prince Albert on March 16.

On the final weekend, Moose Jaw visits on March 21 and the Wheat Kings head to Regina to meet the Pats on March 22 in the season finale for both clubs.

Brandon has met Prince Albert six times this season, winning four. The losses both came in February as the Raiders won two of three meetings the teams played in a 15-day span at the Art Hauser Centre. The Wheat Kings have taken both games played at Westoba Place, 6-4 on Jan. 14 and 4-3 on Sept. 27.

Meanwhile, both Brandon and Saskatoon have three victories in their season series, with the visiting team winning both games in the last two weeks.

Needless to say, there aren’t many secrets between the clubs anymore.

Ultimately, whichever team is able to impose its game — and its will — on the other will emerge victorious. Baumuller knows what it will take.

“We have to come out hard, play our game, have a fast pace, shoot the puck and go to the net,” he said. “We can’t take as many penalties as we normally do. I feel if we do that, we may have a really great weekend and come out with four points.”

ICINGS: The WHL handed out its monthly awards on Thursday. The player of the week is 20-year-old Moose Jaw Warriors forward Atley Calvert, who led the league with 27 points (13 goals and 14 assists) in 12 games for his hometown club.

The top goalie is 20-year-old Swift Current Broncos netminder Reid Dyck of Winkler, who went 9-0-1-0 with a 1.81 goals-against average, .931 save percentage and one shutout in 10 appearances.

The top rookie is Medicine Hat Tigers forward Gavin McKenna of Whitehorse, Yukon, who had 20 points on eight goals and 12 assists in 11 games.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson