U17 Wheaties to face Bruins in semifinals

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

The third-place Brandon Wheat Kings will begin their retribution tour in their best-of-five Winnipeg Hockey League U17 AAA semifinals matchup against the second-place Winnipeg Bruins Saturday night at Southdale Community Centre after clinching their quarterfinal victory over the Winnipeg Wild Tuesday evening.

The Wheat Kings were in sight of capturing the championship title last year, but were stopped in their tracks by the Bruins, who swept them in a best-of-seven final to take the banner for themselves.

Now, Brandon has a chance to redeem themselves, but it won’t be easy. First-year head coach Aaron Rome expects it to be a battle until the end.

“They’re a tough opponent, for sure,” said Rome on Wednesday. “They’re really skilled. They’re skilled up front and on the back end and they’re a quick team with quick transition that likes to play on offence and they have really good goaltending as well, so it will be tough, but we got to focus on what makes us successful.

“We’re pretty deep teams, so we need everybody contributing playing physical, being stingy team defensively, so that’s kind of our focus.”

The Wheat Kings, who finished one point back of the Bruins with 57 points thanks to a 26-5-4-1 record during the regular season, dispatched the Wild 3-1 in their best-of-five series after winning Game 4 on the road 4-3 late Tuesday.

Forward Ashton Shields scored his third goal of the post-season with under seven minutes remaining in the final frame, while Etienne Visser — who is tied for the team lead in playoff scoring with four goals and seven points — netted a hat-trick and an assist, and goaltender Carter Krahn turned aside 30 shots to push the Wheaties to the semis. Brandon won Game 1 5-2 on Feb. 26 at J&G Homes Arena, where they also lost 4-3 in Game 2 on Feb. 28, and then came away unscathed in Game 3 following a 2-1 victory in Winnipeg on Sunday.

While Brandon’s series featured three games decided by one goal, Winnipeg’s path to the semis was practically the opposite. The Bruins took care of the Southwest Cougars in three straight, completing the sweep following 6-1, 5-3, and 8-2 victories. They haven’t played since Sunday, meaning their club has gotten a bit more rest than the Wheaties, but Rome is just happy to have gone on to the next round.

“It’s good to move on,” he said. “We played pretty well, I would say three of the four games … so as a coach, that’s all you can ask for. It’s good to just close any of those series out as quick as you can to get the rest because the last game’s the toughest one.

“The first round we played some tight, competitive hockey, there wasn’t really any blowout games for us. I liked the series that we just played, so for me, it’s kind of a blueprint on how we need to play against the Bruins here.”

The Wheat Kings gathered one win, one tie, and two losses in their head-to-head battles with the Bruins, who collected a 28-6-2 record during the regular season. In their first matchup on Oct. 24 at J&G, Brandon lost 5-1, and then the two teams reached a 2-2 stalemate on Nov. 9 at Southdale Community Centre, before the Wheat Kings picked up their first win against the Bruins with a 4-1 victory on Dec. 21 at home. The last meeting between the two was Feb. 14, when the Wheaties dropped a 3-0 decision on the road.

They know each other very well — they’re strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies.

With 237 goals scored during the season, the most of any team by at least 13 and 69 more then the Wheat Kings, the Bruins biggest threat is their offence, but Rome believes his club has the tools to mitigate their firepower if they stick to their style of game: aggressive, stingy hockey from the very first drop of the puck.

“Starting on time, being ready to go right off the opening face-off I think is a big thing for us,” said Rome. “Getting in on the forecheck, disrupting any teams D and playing quick and just wearing teams down. Don’t pass up a check when you have one, try to finish everyone and just be tough to play against. That to me, is really important in the playoffs, especially when you’re playing a team multiple times within a week.

“I think if we can consistently bring a solid effort night in night out against them for the whole 60 minutes, we will be happy at the end.”

Brandon’s special teams will also go a long way in this series.

During the season its penalty kill ranked top in the league at 90 per cent, while the man advantage clicked at 20 per cent. In their first round series against the Wild, though, the Wheat Kings allowed seven power-play goals on 20 attempts, but also scored five on 19 chances. If they want to limit the Bruins top offensive players, they’re going to have to up their game while shorthanded — or it will prove costly.

In between the pipes, Rome hasn’t selected a starter for Game 1 on Saturday, but it’s more likely Krahn will get the nod with Zayden Munro backing him up.

The other semifinal match will be between the Eastman Selects, who swept the Interlake Lightning in three straight, and the winner of the Winnipeg Thrashers/Pembina Valley Hawks series. The two teams are currently tied 2-2and will play this evening at Gateway Recreation Centre.

Following Saturday’s contest, the Wheat Kings will be back in action for Game 2 on Sunday at Southdale Community Centre, and then will head back home for Game 3 on Tuesday.

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com