U18 PLAYOFFS: Brandon matches U18 league record

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This article was published 28/02/2025 (203 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Wheat Kings have achieved a little bit of Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League history this season.

By finishing in first place in the regular season for the fourth year a row, Brandon matched a mark set only one other time in the league’s 40-year history by the Winnipeg Wild from the 2016-17 to 2019-20 seasons.

Brandon had seven U18 regular-season titles previous to the current streak.

“It’s incredible,” Wheat Kings head coach Travis Mealy said. “It says a lot about where our program is trending. I think a big part of that is just the extra work they’re putting in, whether it’s here or at different extra skates. They’re definitely working hard, and there’s no off-season. They’re literally taking four weeks off and they’re hard at it.”

League championships in the playoffs have been a little harder to come by for the Wheat Kings, with the team hoisting the trophy in 1995, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2019 and 2024.

While last year’s success almost seemed preordained — the Wheat Kings finished a record-breaking 43-0-1-0 in the regular season, went 9-0 in the playoffs to win the championship and later lost in the Telus Cup final — this season the club was beginning anew.

“I don’t think anyone saw us finishing where we finished, including 20 boys in that room,” Mealy said. “They should be proud of that. We lost 12 players, and out of those 12, three of them graduated. At the start of the year, expectations were top third of the league and as we started rolling, we just found our groove and our talent pool and drove with it.

“The boys worked hard. We may not have a bunch of superstars on the team, but we have some good depth, guys that work hard and a great room.”

The top line of Jaxon Jacobson, Brady Turko and Easton Odut all jumped to the Western Hockey League’s Wheat Kings, and other graduates included Colten Worthington (Saskatoon Blades) and defencemen Kaeson Fisher (Everett Silvertips) and Josh McGregor (Swift Current Broncos) and goaltender Burke Hood (Vancouver Giants).

In addition, Ethan Stewart left to join the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Dauphin Kings and Loughlan McMullan went to the Northern Manitoba Blizzard. In fact, Brandon had just four returnees up front in Jonah Lemoine, Cole Lobreau, Cole Dupuis and Jaxson Brick, three returning blue-liners in captain Dustin Bell, Nolan Saunderson and Aiden Laing, and goalie Matt Michta.

Lemoine was the only returnee who was in the top 12 in Wheat Kings scoring last season. He said everyone knew they weren’t as talented as the year before, so their mindset had to change, which made winning that much sweeter.

“It means a lot for us,” Lemoine said. “At the start of the year, everyone didn’t believe in us and we set that goal, that standard, to be able to get first in the league. We did that as a team because we worked hard in practice, we showed up every day wanting to get better and we worked as a team, which made us one of the best teams in the league.”

All of the returnees thrived in front-line roles, allowing the Wheat Kings to keep winning. Mealy said it was neat to watch.

“Jonah had a great year last year,” Mealy said. “For Nolan Saunderson and Dupuis and Lobreau and Brick, those guys took huge steps from 15 to 16, and we see that all the time. With Saunds, it was a transition after Christmas, and they all transition at different times.

“We’re looking at (underage rookie) Reid Nicol, who took half a year to find his stride as well. It just happens every year, and those guys were huge for us. They played fewer minutes last year and killed penalties and this year they’re on the power play and playing top-six minutes.”

A big part of the U18 program’s success is everything that comes before. Youngsters have great coaches to learn from at Hockey Brandon’s house league level, and as they get older and enter the more competitive streams at the U13, U15 and U17 levels, the focus on the game intensifies.

As a result, Brandon’s teams have enjoyed a remarkable degree of success in recent years.

While head coach Dave Lewis and assistant coach Chris Johnston at the U15 AAA level are the most consistent contributors of players to the U18 level, Mealy said lots of people deserve credit.

“Brandon minor hockey is thriving,” Mealy said. “It’s crazy to sit here and think that with such a small population and minor hockey registration, that we’re not doing something right throughout the earlier years. I don’t know if it’s coach progression or player progression or all the extra skates, but we’re obviously onto something here.

“For a city of 50,000 people, we’re putting this together. If you look at other registrations throughout the league, we’re third lowest. The U15 program is huge for us, the U17 program is a great development league. When they come to us they’re hungry and work hard, and that’s all we ask.”

And that’s what led to this season’s success. Lemoine said no one on the team thought anything would be handed to them. As they move into the post-season, new destinations are in sight but the path hasn’t changed.

“We don’t expect anything, we just set goals to win the league and make it to regionals and hopefully make it Telus,” Lemoine said. “We want to work towards it but not expect anything, because if we expect it too much, then we might not get what we wanted. Just setting those goals and then being able to work at them is good for us.”

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