Oil Capitals face tall task in final with Nighthawks

Braxton Burdeny never knew what it was like to play in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League playoffs until just three weeks ago.

The 20-year-old senior netminder for the Virden Oil Capitals doesn’t have the same playoff mileage as many who’ve had multiple stabs at a Turnbull Cup championship, but luckily for him, all it takes is just one opportunity — and he’s determined to make his first one unforgettable.

Burdeny and the Oil Caps are rarin’ to go, fresh off their semifinal victory over the Steinbach Pistons as they face the top-ranked Niverville Nighthawks in a best-of-seven clash, which begins on Friday in Niverville at 7:30 p.m.

“We are so excited and so dialled in together,” said Burdeny on Tuesday. “With my first playoffs in the league, couldn’t be happier with how we’ve done and everyone seems to have really bought in and we’re just really excited to take this down. “It’s my last year and it’s the year that you want to win the most and just give it your all, so there’s nothing else to really save it for.”

Game 2 is at Tundra Oil & Gas Place in Virden on Sunday, then Game 3 is on Tuesday back in Niverville and Game 4 is on Thursday in Virden. If necessary, Game 5 is April 25 at the CRRC, Game 6 is April 27 in Virden, while Game 7 is in Niverville on April 29. Puck drop for every game is at 7:30 p.m., except for Game 2, which begins at 7 p.m.

Virden enters this series with Niverville as the underdogs, just as it was in its last final appearance in 2023 when it lost to Steinbach in five games, but it’s lineup is very different than a few years ago.

The Oil Capitals captured the West Division with 83 points this season thanks to a 39-14-5 record after failing to clinch a playoff berth last year, which marked the first time in 10 years they wouldn’t be in contention. They ranked third in the league among offences with 257 goals scored. With Burdeny chalking up a 23-11-2 record between the pipes, they also finished with the third fewest goals allowed at 156.

They play a fast transition game that uses the whole length of the ice and under head coach and GM Tyson Ramsey, their defensive systems and stinginess frustrate teams into playing an undisciplined brand of hockey. And you only need to look as far as their first and second round opponents to see it in action after they breezed past the Neepawa Titans in four straight, before finishing off the Pistons in six games over the weekend.

Burdeny, who’s racked up all eight of his club’s wins this playoffs to go along with a 2.71 goals against average and a .903 save percentage, admits Niverville is a different animal, though.

“You obviously have to give them quite a bit of respect,” he said. “They play hard, they obviously want to win and they have a great leadership over there that knows what they’re doing. They’re a very veteran group, and they just know what it takes to win hockey games and obviously got good goaltending too.”

The race for tops in the league ended fairly quickly once the Nighthawks (51-6-1) collected 23 wins in their first 25 contests and then tallied 103 points.

Forward Hayden Wheddon led the league in points with 36 goals and 90 points to help his squad amass 280 goals for, which ranked No. 1 in the league. As did their defence, which allowed just 117 goals against — 14 fewer than any other team in the league — with six-foot, 180-pound goaltender Austin Dubinsky backing them up with a 2.18 GAA and a .931 save percentage en route to a 34-3 campaign.

Niverville dusted its opponents with ease during the regular season and showed no signs of slowing down through the first two rounds, sweeping the Winkler Flyers and then handing the resilient Waywayseecappo Wolverines their pink slip after five outings.

They also got their pound of flesh on the Oil Caps, who they defeated in three out of their four meetings this season, which included a pair of lopsided decisions.

In Virden’s third game of the season on Sept. 26, it fell 4-1 at home and then on Nov. 27, Niverville took down the hosts again, but in even more dominant fashion with a 7-1 victory. On Dec. 7, the Oil Capitals suffered their worst loss of the season after being skated out of CRRC 11-2, but then bounced back in their final meeting a few months later with a 1-0 road victory Feb. 7. Burdeny turned aside all 34 shots sent his way, while Tyson Ulmer notched the game’s lone goal a little more than halfway through the final frame.

Burdeny started in all four contests, but was pulled just over six minutes into the third game after allowing four goals on nine shots. He’s totalled a 3.75 GAA and an .801 save percentage in those four meetings, but that means nothing now.

The Winnipeg product said he and his team now have a clean slate, and they don’t plan on letting it go to waste.

“At the end of the day, we both won our respective divisions and won our way all the way to the final and now we’re on even ground,” Burdeny said. “It makes everything else that happened in the regular season pretty irrelevant.

“We’ve got so much depth on our team, forwards and defence too that if we stick to our structure and keep blocking shots the way we have and I can make a couple saves along the way, we should be doing pretty fine.”

Virden’s homegrown talent Bryce Bryant leads his team along with the rest of the league in post-season scoring with nine goals and 19 points, while Liam Goertzen, Colten Worthington, Brooks Siemens, Marshall Light — who suffered an injury after taking a hit to the head from Pistons defenceman Zhenya Miles in Game 5 — London Hoilett, and Cohen Lewko are also in double digits. Defenceman Nathan Schaefer, Austin Osiowy, and captain Ty Plaisier are all tied for eight points each.

Niverville on the other hand, is led by Gimli’s Adam Vigfusson, who has tallied nine goals and 13 points through nine playoff games. Marlen Edwards, who won the championship with the OCN Blizzard last season, is the only other Nighthawk in double digits with two goals and 10 points.

Burdeny knows both of them, as he played with Edwards during their time with the U15 AAA Pembina Valley Hawks and has gotten used to seeing Vigfusson on the other side of the ice after playing against him over the years.

His path to now facing them in the final has been anything but expected.

Before this season, Burdeny had spent the last two years with the Winnipeg Monarchs (formerly known as the Winnipeg Freeze), a slowly developing team that had just 14 wins in that span. He was handed little defensive runway and was hung out to dry quite often, which resulted in him collecting just eight wins over 63 games. They were in dire straits, but then an opportunity rung his way this summer.

And ironically, while playing another sport.

“It was definitely something that was in the work,” said Burdeny. “I’d been talking with my coach in Winnipeg about it and then it was funny because most of it happened while I was playing a round of golf. Rammer (Ramsey) called me and I was a little stressed out at the time because all these phone calls were coming in, but when I talked to him I told him I was golfing and he was like, ‘Yeah, no worries, just finish your round and then give me a call back after,’ which really meant a lot to me and helped me figure out that this was where I wanted to be.”

“I was unbelievably better (on the course) after that. it was like there was a weight off of my shoulders.”

The Oil Capitals traded for Burdeny in exchange for forward Maxx Hamelin, taking a flyer on a goaltender who may have not had the most attractive numbers, but was in need of a fresh start.

The rest is now history and Burdeny is grateful for it, including the rough patches along the way.

“I definitely owe a lot to those organizations that gave me my first shot,” he said. “It didn’t go as well as I hoped my first couple years in junior, but it definitely made me better getting as many shots as I did and as much experience as I did and definitely prepared me well for this year.

“It was a bit of a grind for sure, but I’d almost have it no other way.”

From worst in the east to best in the west, Burdeny’s practically gone through it all, but he’s still got one blank left on his bingo card and that’s the Turnbull Cup.

“It would mean everything,” said Burdeny. “We are so excited and so dialled in together and just seeing the guys every day at the rink and then always hanging out together off the ice after, it would just mean so much and we would be over the moon.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com