Olsen, U15 Wheat Kings not getting ahead of themselves

The under-15 AAA Brandon Wheat Kings may have just one loss to their name this season, but Brayden Olsen knows better than to let that get to their heads.

The five-foot-seven, 145-pound defenceman and Brandon head into the Winnipeg U15 AAA post-season next week as the highest seed, just like it’s been all year long after taking 26 games to drop its first contest. Olsen believes his club’s success doesn’t mean anything just yet, however.

“We’ve obviously got a lot of confidence so far, but we can’t get too confident coming up with playoffs here, we gotta chill and not be overconfident,” Olsen said. “I think we just take each game day by day and forget about all the other games.”

Before the Wheat Kings (29-1-0-0) make their post-season run for the championship, they will play two more games on the road this weekend, heading to Winnipeg to face the Bruins Black (26-3-0-1), before ending the season in Altona to redeem themselves against the Pembina Valley Hawks (15-8-4-3). It was the Hawks who ended their 25-game winning streak by handing them a 6-4 loss at J&G Homes Arena on Feb. 8.

Since then, Brandon has won four in a row, outgunning their opposition 33-6 to push them to 58 points on the year, which leads the West Division by 20 points over the second-place Parkland Rangers (18-10-2-0). They are also five points ahead of any other team in the league, with the East Division-leading Bruins Black currently at 53 points.

The Wheat Kings also lead the league in goal differential by a country mile with 182 thanks to averaging more than eight goals per game, while allowing just over two goals against per game.

Brandon’s clearly established itself as the team to beat and has admittedly thrown a target on its back in doing so, but it’s still prepared for whatever teams will throw at it. It was a much needed lesson learned from last year, when the Wheaties failed to reach the semifinals and lost their streak of three straight provincial championships.

Olsen, who’s in his second year with the U15 squad, is motivated to make sure that disappointed feeling doesn’t happen again.

“We got a lot of energy going into this because we really want to get some payback here,” he said. “We want to get in the win column again, so we just can’t get too confident acting like we’re going to win.”

Olsen will be one of the loudest voices pushing that agenda, as all season long he’s proved to be a reliable, heart-and-soul player on the back end for head coach Dave Lewis, while also being in a leadership role as an assistant captain. It’s a responsibility he fully embraces.

“I’m definitely a very vocal guy, but I do lead by example too,” said Olsen. “I definitely get the guys going in the locker room right before we go on and stuff, and even for practice too I always get the boys going because we need to have good practices to improve.”

Olsen also gets his team fired up in game too with show-stopping hits he seemingly makes every game. His tool kit is versatile but there’s no doubt his physical play is the sharpest, which is one of the reasons why teams have a hard time pushing for offence against their defence corps.

In addition to his defensive prowess, he’s also done his part offensively as well tallying four goals and 26 points in 25 games, making him the second highest scorer on the blue-line behind Will Preston, who has seven goals and 31 points.

While the defensive side of Olsen’s game has always been there, to say it’s been a breakout season offensively would be an understatement, as last year he grabbed just one goal and seven points.

“I’ve always been a super competitive guy, always wanted to win everything and put my body on the line or just everything to win. Last year being an underage guy, I didn’t get too much ice time, but I was just an energy guy to get the boys going,” said Olsen, who has 28 penalty minutes this season. “This year I’m also an energy guy, but I still create offence and I’ve gotten more confidence this year than last year.

“I didn’t want to get too confident saying I’m going to get 50 points thus year, but just going game by game and seeing what happens, doing what I need to work on and to get more offence and stuff like that and it’s helped.

Olsen’s defensive partner for most of the season has been Easton Anderson, a five-foot-two, 107-pound rookie with two goals and 19 points in 30 contests. He may be undersized, but he’s clicked well with Olsen, as the two bring completely different packages to the table — one being size and the other speed.

“He’s a great guy,” Olsen said. “He’s a small guy, but he’s so smart and he can cover me super good, so if I jump up in the rush he’ll be there for me and I know if he goes in the rush, I’ll be there for him. We just have that chem(istry) on the blue line.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com