Heat goes out of rivalry with Ice

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This article was published 05/02/2025 (321 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The old Winnipeg Ice were quite simply the bane of the existence of the Brandon Wheat Kings for a two-year stretch.

In the 2022-23 season, Winnipeg went 10-0 against Brandon, with three overtime victories and one triumph in a shootout. A season earlier, the Wheat Kings were 2-7-1-0. But the Ice, who never managed to win a league title despite their regular season dominance, left the provincial capital in the summer of 2023 and are now the Wenatchee Wild.

While the memories remain, Brandon forward Caleb Hadland said the fire has gone out of the old Wheat Kings-Ice rivalry as the Wild make their first-ever visit tonight to Westoba Place.

“In my mind, it’s mainly forgotten,” Hadland said. “That Winnipeg team were a very strong team when they were but most of those players have left by now. There aren’t many players remaining on that team who were from the original team, so for me, it’s passed now and they’re just the Wenatchee Wild.”

All that’s left of the Ice on the current Wild roster are overage captain Evan Friesen of Winnipeg, and 18-year-old forward Miles Cooper, who played eight games with them as a 16-year-old.

To illustrate just how quickly things change, the only Wheat Kings who played Winnipeg are goalie Carson Bjarnason, forwards Roger McQueen, Caleb Hadland and Nolan Flamand and defenceman Luke Shipley. Joby Baumuller also skated against them as a 15-year-old callup.

In fact, one of the Wheat Kings that year, Eastyn Mannix, now plays for Wenatchee after a stop with the Edmonton Oil Kings.

“They had a stacked lineup,” Bjarnason said of the Ice. “It was nice to play against them and see that kind of competition but not anymore. It’s somebody we’re definitely willing to go up against and we expect to win.”

Team captain Quinn Mantei agreed.

“They were really strong for a lot of years,” Mantei said. “They did some damage to us but they’ve cleaned house and totally reloaded. There is barely anybody who is left there, honestly. It was tough those couple of years but now with the rebrand, it honestly feels like a totally different team and a totally different group. “It’s funny how everything turned over so quick.”

Wenatchee opened their swing through the Western Hockey League’s East Division with a 4-2 loss to the Saskatoon Blades on Friday and a 5-2 defeat at the hands of the Prince Albert Raiders on Saturday.

They were in action last night against the Moose Jaw Warriors in a game that ended after deadline, and then hopping on the bus for tonight’s engagement in Brandon.

The Wild finish up their trip on Friday against the Regina Pats and Saturday against the Swift Current Broncos.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said the Wild do some things very well.

“They’re a real hard-working team and they’re disciplined within their structure,” Murray said. “I think they’re up and down pretty solid all-around. They don’t have a lot of guys — like us — in the top 20 in scoring but they rely on a by-committee approach I think. They’re well disciplined, they play with good structure and they get a lot out of their guys.”

If Brandon was on a revenge tour when they played their first-ever game in Wenatchee’s Town Toyota Center on Oct. 21, 2023, the game ended up like so many they played against Winnipeg.

After the Wheat Kings took a 3-2 lead in the third period, Briley Wood tied it up 70 seconds later for the Wild and Kenta Isogai scored the only goal of the shootout as Brandon fell 4-3.

It’s a big game for both clubs tonight. Before the three games around the league on Tuesday, Wenatchee (17-26-3-1) was in 10th place in the Western Conference but just two points out of a playoff spot. Meanwhile, Brandon (24-16-3-3) is in seventh in an Eastern Conference race in which just four points separate fifth place from eighth place.

“We have a little bit of an advantage here with teams getting off the bus in situation like this, so you have to take advantage of it,” Murray said. “It happens to us on the other side and when we have that opportunity to be in an advantageous situation, we have to take it.”

After playing some of their best hockey of the season during their West Coast trip, Brandon took five of six points from the teams most likely to miss the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. In their three games against the Red Deer Rebels (a 7-2 win last Wednesday), Moose Jaw Warriors (a 4-3 shootout loss on Friday) and Regina Pats (a 5-2 win on Saturday), they had to overcome dreadful starts each night.

“We just talked about it in the room,” Hadland said. “That’s a point of ours we need to be better at lately, especially with them being on the road and coming into Brandon. We don’t want to make it easy for them. We need to have a way better start than we’ve been having. We’re having chats in the room and making sure all the guys are ready to go and we’ll be coming out strong.”

Bjarnason said it’s not secret about what they have to do: It’s simply a matter of making it happen.

“We have a few days here to sit down and look at what we’ve done and what we need to work on,” Bjarnason said. “I think it’s just accountability and practice work. We have to get down to it and make sure we have good habits. It’s just a matter of preparing. You’re not going to be as nervous if you feel like you’re prepared and ready to go so that’s on us and it’s something the leadership group has definitely talked about.”

The big goalie from Carberry has certainly made a strong return to the team.

When Bjarnason was serving as third goalie with Canada at the world junior championships a month ago, he wasn’t on the ice every day because some of their practices were cancelled. His first game back in Brandon was a 6-3 loss to the Portland Winterhawks on Jan. 10 when they fired 43 shots at him.

“It was nice to get back quick and swift into that,” Bjarnason said. “Practices have been good for me and that’s what carries over the most for me.”

Since then, he’s posted a .920 or better save percentage in three of his seven games. He’ll be hoping for a strong effort from the 18 skaters in front of him tonight, something Hadland is eager to give him.

But the alternate captain from the Alberta town of Sylvan Lake knows it all cascades from a good start.

“It’s a group effort, and everyone has to be buying in at the start of the game,” Hadland said. “We just have to play our game and dictate how we want the game to be played instead of waiting for something to happen and then reacting to that.”

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