Bruins expect battle from Wheat Kings

The Winnipeg Bruins have had the best season of their decade-long existence, but just one hurdle remains.

As the Bruins chase their first Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League championship, the Brandon Wheat Kings will be doing their best to put the celebration off for another year.

The third-place Wheat Kings (38-7-0-3) and the first-place Winnipeg Bruins (42-3-1-2) open their best-of-five Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League final series today at Winnipeg’s Southdale Community Centre.

Bruins head coach Larry Woo said it’s shaping up to be a good series.

“There are kids on Brandon I think are probably ready for the next stage, whether that’s the Western Hockey League or Junior A in Manitoba or the SJ (Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League) or MJ (Manitoba Junior Hockey League),” Woo said. “I feel we probably have a similar group. We might not have some of the high-end guys like they do, but we do have a group that is young and energetic and sometimes I think they would run over their grandma if they had to, to win the game.

“Those are hard to find sometimes, kids who just want to play and have success … At the end of the day, you have two pretty good teams.”

Game 2 is at J&G Homes Arena on Monday at 7:30 p.m., and Game 3 is set for the Southdale Community Centre on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

If necessary, Game 4 would be at J&G Homes Arena on Friday at 7:30 p.m., and Game 5 would be at Southdale Community Centre on Sunday at 7 p.m.

Woo chuckled he teases Brandon coach Travis Mealy about being the reigning coach of the year in the league, but adds it was awarded for a reason.

“They’ll be well prepared,” Woo said. “They have a couple of superstars on their team, which I think is obviously deserved. (Reid) Nicol, (Easten) Turko, (Jaxson) Brick, (Cole) Dupuis, you can go on and on. They have a good team, they’re a smart team and they are lethal on the power play.

“There are definitely things we have to do well on a nightly basis to have success, but we have done those things against them.”

He added not much will change in the final. although there may be some tinkering with systems and structures.

“At the end of the day, it’s going to be who wins battles and who competes,” Woo said. “I believe, and I think Travis feels the same way, it’s about the team that decides to play together and move forward.”

Winnipeg took three of the four games between the teams in the regular season, with Winnipeg winning 4-2 and 5-3 at Southdale Community Centre in mid-November, and the Wheat Kings earning a 4-3 win on Jan. 2 and falling 7-4 on Feb. 24 at J&G Homes Arena.

So far in the playoffs, Brandon has won their two best-of-five series in four games, topping the sixth-place Southwest Cougars and the second-place Winnipeg Wild.

The Bruins, meanwhile, swept the eighth-place Parkland Rangers and the fourth-place Winnipeg Thrashers.

The Bruins have three first-team all-stars on their squad, forwards Crewe Schimnowski and Chace Gregg and blue-liner Ryland Moore, and two second-team all-stars in defenceman Danny Cross and goalie Zak Matheson.

Still, it has not been an easy season for the Bruins, who lost top forward Trevor Toyne for nearly two months due to injury, and had eight players miss at least 10 of the 48 regular season games.

“I’ve been around hockey players for a long time, and this team that we have this year, you want to throw out some words like resilience, commitment,” Woo said. “This team has been real incredible. “We faced some big injuries all year to a lot of real good players, but yet they’ve been able to play with each other, play within the structure and just get results.

“It wasn’t pretty all the time, but at the end of the day, game after game, practice after practice, they’ve worked and they’ve done it together. It’s been fun to watch.”

The Bruins are a younger team, with seven 2010-born players in their 15-year-old seasons, which makes them U18 rookies. They also have six 2009s and seven 2008-born players.

(Brandon has four 2010s, eight 2009s and eight 2008s.)

“I have a very young group, a very energetic group and I would say they have lots of things they want to do,” Woo said. “Am I surprised they’re doing it this year? I would say yes, but at the same time, they’re competitive, they work, they’re a good group.”

Woo, a former Western Hockey League player who skated with the Victoria Cougars and Swift Current Broncos, is the father of former Moose Jaw Warriors and Calgary Hitmen defenceman Jett and current Medicine Hat Tigers blue-liner Jonas.

While the Pembina Valley Hawks led the league with a 32.0 per cent conversion rate on the power play, the Wheat Kings were second at 31.3 per cent and the Bruins were third at 29.6 per cent.

In the playoffs, Winnipeg is first at 50.0 per cent and Brandon is second at 40.0 per cent.

Woo’s boys both played in the U18 league, and he’s seen how teams can take penalties, and also noticed that Paul Kruger’s successful Winnipeg Wild clubs are usually among the least penalized.

“That’s what we tried to mimic this year, for us to stay out of the box and just play a game that is on the right side of the line and try not to push that with the referees,” Woo said. “I think staying out of the box and not taking penalties and giving Reid Nicol and some of those other guys extra space will be important for us to have success.”

The Bruins, who entered the league in the 2017-18 season, have one appearance in the final, losing to the Wild in 2022-23. They have never missed the playoffs, but had their season end in the semifinals twice and in the quarterfinals four times.

Woo has coached the team for the past couple of seasons and said he’s always hoping to take a step forward with the program, but ultimately, success is defined by more than banners.

“At the end of the day, we had an incredible year,” Woo said. “I can’t take that away from the kids. This is still a development league, and I think we’ve done a good job of developing these kids. What happens in the next week will not take away from what they’ve done all year.

“If I anticipate they will do well, then that’s gravy on top. I think both teams have had great seasons.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com