Nicol, U15 Wheaties prepare for Bruins in semis

The Brandon Wheat Kings are one step closer to returning to euphoria.

The Wheat Kings (3-0) will continue their playoff run as they begin their Winnipeg Hockey League U15 AAA best-of-five semifinal matchup against the Bruins Gold (3-0) at J&G Homes Arena on Saturday afternoon.

Its top-four appearance is already further than Brandon reached last year after falling short of the semifinal mark and breaking the program’s streak of three consecutive championships.

Now, the Wheat Kings have an opportunity to reclaim their dynasty, and head coach Dave Lewis believes his club is well aware of what it’s going to take to go all the way, but they’re not ready to get ahead of themselves just yet. They’re taking it one step at a time — and that begins with the Bruins.

“This is a very competitive Winnipeg Bruins team, so it should be a really good series coming up here,” Lewis said earlier this week. “It’s gonna be hard fought, battle intensive, fast paced, good competitive hockey, which we all want to see.

“They’re a very good skating club, they have good depth, good skill, so we’re gonna have to play to the best of our abilities to have success and if we can play to our capabilities, I think we have a good chance, but it will be a significant challenge for our guys, so we’re looking forward to it.”

The Wheat Kings enter this matchup after sweeping their best-of-five, first-round series against the Wild Green following a 5-0 victory at J&G Homes Arena on Feb. 26, an 8-3 victory on Feb. 28, and a 4-3 victory at the Hockey For All Centre on Sunday. They’ve gotten lots of rest and preparation for their opponent, but so have the Bruins.

Winnipeg’s squad also wiped out their first round opponent in three straight after topping the Parkland Rangers with 2-1, 4-1, and 7-0 victories. They also haven’t played since Sunday, so both teams should have lots of energy coming out of the gate this weekend.

During the regular season, Brandon grabbed wins in both meetings with the Bruins, but the results were polar opposites. Their first matchup came early in the season on Oct. 4, when the Wheaties came away with a gutsy 6-5 victory on the road. A number of months later on Jan. 31, the Wheat Kings clotheslined them 8-2.

Their past meetings may be an indication of what to expect from either team, but Lewis still doesn’t put much stock into what happened during the season.

“Playoffs are just a different beast altogether,” he said. “The competitive nature of all the players, the intensity, everything ramps up in playoffs and goals aren’t scored as easy as they were during the season. The whole game just gets way more difficult and the pretty tic-tac-toe goals aren’t near as prevalent as they were during the season, so you really have to rely on old-fashioned, grind-out hockey and winning the net front battles and banging in loose pucks.

“We understand the strengths and the weaknesses of the Bruins Gold team and we have lots of video of them, so we’ll do lots of work looking at their strengths, weaknesses and trying to exploit their weaknesses and limit their strengths.”

Brandon is making adjustments as it sees fit to put themselves in a better spot against the Bruins, however, its main concern is focusing on how it plays.

Lewis’s emphasis on structured play throughout all three zones and making sure all his players represent one cohesive unit on the ice is a key reason the Wheat Kings were able to collect a 31-1 record during the season — with their only loss coming to the Pembina Valley Hawks in a 6-4 decision at J&G on Feb. 8.

They scored the most goals out of any squad across the league with 263 and also allowed the second least with 74, giving themselves a 189 goal differential. And while they have lots of depth throughout their lineup with offensive weapons like Daniel Flett-Neapew, Graycen Van Meiji and Sully Taylor, defensive specialist such as Will Preston and Brayden Olsen, strong goaltending with Cash Didluck and Aurick Veldhuisen, it also helps having Kale Nicol, the best player in the league by a light-year.

In 32 games this season, Nicol reeled in 86 goals and 141 points, breaking three-time Stanley Cup champion Jonathan Toews’ U15 AAA points-per-game record in Manitoba. He’s put himself in company with a future first-ballot Hall of Famer, yet at the age of 14, he’s still as humble as can be.

“It’s pretty cool,” Nicol said on Wednesday. “I knew about it definitely at the start of the year and it was in my mind a little bit with kids on my team talking about it, but it’s pretty cool. I wasn’t sure what I was going to be able to do with that, but it’s pretty nice that I beat it and I’ll take that for pride and keep going on with that.”

Nicol also tallied four goals — including one shorthanded — and nine points during his team’s first-round series against the Wild. He’s looking forward to getting back to work starting on Saturday.

“Really excited,” said Nicol. “We know it’ll be a very good battle against the Bruins, so excited to get back with them.

“They always work hard, they never give up, no matter what the score is, so I know it’ll be a hard battle and lots of grinding games, so you have to be a lot more sharper.”

Nicol will start Game 1 playing alongside forwards Jett Wood and Van Meiji, a trio that combined for 19 points in Round 1, and had a big influence on special teams. Van Meiji and Nicol totalled three goals while down a man, which was ironically more than the man advantage, which only put up two.

The Wheat Kings power play, which is run by assistant coach Chris Johnston, clicked at 23 per cent during the season, but was just 2-for-11 against the Wild. Their penalty kill held a 89 per cent success rate during the season and was 13-for-16 in Round 1.

The Bruins on the other hand, accumulated a 29 per cent rate on the man advantage and were 3-for-8 against the Hawks in Round 1, while their 86 per cent kill rate shorthanded during the season was 5-for-6 last week. They finished first in the Central Division with a 21-8-1-2 record, tallying 160 goals for and 92 goals against for a 68-goal differential.

Forward Lukas Hamelin led his team in scoring with 31 goals and 67 points in 32 games this year.

Lewis said his team’s put in the work — now it’s just time to go out and play.

“It only gets more intense as you get to the semifinals and finals and we’ve bought into that process and we know we’re gonna face adversity along the way and we’re going to be challenged, it’s just a matter of riding it out and winning the hard way, as opposed to the pretty way.

“They wanna win, they understand what it takes to win and they’re certainly willing to give their best effort.”

Lewis hasn’t named a starter for Game 1 yet, but said he will continue to ride the hot hand — whether that be Didluck or Veldhuisen.

Following Saturday’s contest at 1:30 p.m., Game 2 will also be at J&G on Sunday at 5 p.m., while Game 3 will head to Southdale Community Centre for a 6:15 p.m. start time on Tuesday. If necessary, Game 4 is also at Southdale on Thursday and Game 5 is next Saturday back at J&G.

The other semifinal match is between the Eastman Selects and winner of Bruins Black and Pembina Valley Hawks. The two were tied at twos and played their winner-take-all game late Thursday. The game ended after deadline.

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com