Lavoie, Wheaties prepare for Broncos

If you want to see how popular a junior hockey player is with his teammates, watch them celebrate his first goal.

On Saturday, Brandon Wheat Kings overage forward Luke Mistelbacher set up 19-year-old defenceman Max Lavoie for a one-time slapshot from the point that beat Regina Pats goalie Marek Schlenker.

After the puck went in, Mistelbacher circled and jumped into the rookie defenceman’s arms while the players on the bench celebrated wildly.

To provide some context, that celebration came for a goal with 12 seconds remaining in an 8-5 victory.

“He’s one of those guys who we all love because he’s an underdog,” Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said of Lavoie. “He comes in as a 19-year-old guy from Junior A and is a great success story.

“He’s done everything we’ve asked of him. He’s the first guy to stand up for a teammate if we need it. He does the things that don’t necessarily make the scoresheet. For him to get a goal, even though it was the eighth goal in an 8-5 game, it was good.

“You root for kids like that. It was pretty exciting to see the bench get so riled up. It shows what he means to your team.”

The response to the goal by his teammates meant a lot to Lavoie, who spent last season with the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Winkler Flyers.

“That was awesome,” Lavoie said. “We have an unreal group of guys here, and we’re getting closer by the day. It was really special. Everybody is so nice to each other here.”

And of course it doesn’t hurt to score. The defensive defenceman now has a goal and an assist in 14 games to go with his team-leading 25 penalty minutes.

“It was pretty cool,” Lavoie said. “It’s everybody’s dream to score goals. It was awesome it happened there. It was a great pass by Mistelbacher.”

Lavoie and the Wheat Kings are back in action tonight when the Swift Current Broncos visit Assiniboine Credit Union Place at 7 p.m.

While Lavoie scored his first goal, Prabh Bhathal, Ryan Boyce, Cam Allard, Nigel Boehm and Jimmy Egan are still looking for theirs.

The 16-year-old Bhathal, who got his first WHL goal last season in one of the eight games he was called up for, scored 83 times in his draft year with the under-15 Winnipeg Thrashers, so he knows where the opponents keep their net.

“I think it’s going well,” Bhathal said of his rookie Western Hockey League season. “Obviously the team had a slow start but I think moving forward, everyone is starting to pick up the pace. I’m starting to pick up the pace and doing the little things like winning faceoffs, getting pucks out of the zone and moving forward, having higher expectations and making no mistakes.”

The league can be notoriously tough on 16-year-olds, something Murray knows first-hand. As a result, he said the message to his youn player is simple.

“Keep pushing,” Murray said. “He’s demonstrated he can certainly have success offensively. His line had a big goal for us the other night (in a 3-1 loss to the Calgary Hitmen) when he got in on the forecheck. He’s had some chances and created.

“There are growing pains with 16-year-olds in this league but there have been times when you see a dominant power forward. It takes time, and he has to trust in it and get his feet moving and his compete and work ethic. He’s a big body with skill is there’s a ton of upside to him.”

Bhathal has three assists in 11 games this season, with six penalty minutes a plus-minus of -1.

While he did gain some valuable experience, he said there is a big difference between being a temporary callup and a full-time roster player.

“Now I have to work my way up,” Bhathal said. “Last year I came in and helped the team out when they were injured, so it’s definitely a different experience. Also just moving in with my billets and all sorts of things like coming here and going to school early in the morning, it’s all a change. “I think I’ve adjusted to it pretty well.”

He’ll have another chance to get that first goal tonight against Swift Current.

Both teams sport records of 6-7-1-0 and are tied for seventh place in the Eastern Conference. In their sole matchup this season, the Broncos raced out to a 4-0 lead in the first 23 minutes of the game and held on for a 5-4 victory as the Wheat Kings scored three goals in the final eight minutes.

“They’re a different team than they’ve been in the past,” Murray said. “They’ve been high flying in the past but they work hard with one line after another and guys like (Noah) Kosick and (Hudson) Darby, those guys are having pretty good years and leading the charge. For them it’s by committee, and they work hard and are detailed. They get after it.”

Both teams have elite power plays, with Brandon clicking along in first overall at 42.9 per cent on 21 goals in 49 opportunities, while Swift Current is fifth at 28.6 per cent.

“They’re deep, they work hard, they know their roles,” Lavoie said. “As long as we play our game and come out strong, I feel like there is no reason we can’t beat them.”

The Wheat Kings will be missing their two injured defencemen, Merrek Arpin (upper body, indefinite) and Hlinsky (lower body, week to week), plus forwards Easton Odut (upper body, week to week) and Ryan Boyce (lower body, week to week) and Chase Surkan, who is away playing for Canada Red at the U17 World Challenge. Boyce’s leg was injured when he and Regina Pats forward Mathis Paull fell to the ice together after a fight on Saturday.

Forward Jaxon Jacobson (lower body) and goaltender Jayden Kraus (lower body) also missed practice on Tuesday but are expected to suit up for tonight’s game.

The Wheat Kings, who have been at home for 12 of their 15 games to start the season, will finally begin to play some road games after tonight’s matchup. They visit the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday and the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday in their first Alberta swing.

Bhathal is optimistic there is lots of time for the Wheat Kings to right the ship.

“Everybody has high expectations in that room to go pretty far this year,” Bhathal said. “I think it’s maintaining that work ethic, practising hard, playing hard. It hasn’t gone our way sometimes but it’s pushing each other moving forward. All of us are going to play at lot higher level. Every game here on out is important for us and getting those points is really crucial.”

ICINGS: The 16-year-old Surkan, a Regina product, was named the WHL’s player of the month for September-October after posting 12 goals and seven assists in 11 games … JP Hurlbert, 17, of Allen, Texas, was named top player after his 28-point month, with 11 goals and 17 assists in 15 games. He currently leads the WHL in scoring … The top goalie is 19-year-old Penticton Vees netminder Andrew Reyelts of Proctor, Minn., who went 6-1-1-1 with a 1.86 goals-against average, .935 save percentage and one shutout.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com