Wheat Kings prepare for hostile reception in P.A.

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This article was published 29/03/2022 (1446 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Brandon Wheat Kings club starting to feel good about itself again is taking its show on the road.

After opening a four-game sequence of Western Hockey League games in Saskatchewan with a 5-2 win in Regina on Saturday, Brandon returned home for a day off on Sunday, practice on Monday, and an early on-ice session on Tuesday with a trip to Saskatoon in the afternoon. They will stay in the Bridge City all week as they face the Prince Albert Raiders tonight and Friday, with a trip-ending game on Saturday against the Blades.

Brandon head coach Don MacGillivray said his group has been trending in the right direction for a while, including when a shorthanded Wheat Kings squad fell in a pair of games to the powerful Winnipeg Ice at the end of a six-game losing streak.

“I felt like that during the games against Winnipeg,” MacGillivray said. “We just didn’t have the number of bodies that we needed. I think we’ve done some good things in games. When you see things translate into the games that you worked on in practice, that’s a sign that things are starting to come along.

“We’re trying to get healthy here. That’s our biggest focus right now, and making sure that we’re using all our bodies that we have available to us.”

In the Eastern Conference playoff race, sixth-place Brandon (30-24-3-2, 9 games remaining, 65 points) needs any combination of earning three points or the eighth-place Swift Current Broncos (25-31-5-2, 5 gr, 57 pt) and ninth-place Raiders (24-32-4-1, 7 gr, 53 pts) losing three points to book a spot in the playoffs.

Brandon is five points ahead of the seventh-place Lethbridge Hurricanes (27-29-3-1, 8 gr, 58 pts).

Forward Nate Danielson said the players are certainly aware of what’s going on.

“We’re all watching the standings right now,” Danielson said. “It’s coming down to the wire so we’re all sort of aware of what’s going on, that it’s a close race and we have to keep pushing to solidify our spot in the playoffs.”

The 17-year-old has played a key role in Brandon’s resurgence.

After a scary incident when he crashed into the end boards on March 2 in a game against the Regina Pats and was carried off the ice on a spine board, Danielson missed three weeks but returned on Friday and earned three assists in his first two games back.

“It’s really good to be back with the guys and playing,” Danielson said. “You never want anyone to be out with injury. It’s good to be back and getting into the winning column.”

Another of the team’s 17-year-old forwards has also been instrumental in their success. After a hot start to the season in terms of goals scored, Rylen Roersma cooled down in November and December, heated up in January again, and has found the back of the net again in March, scoring three goals in his last four games.

He’s looking forward to the road trip.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been on the road,” Roersma said. “I think it’s a good team builder for us to have the guys in close quarters. We get along pretty well so I think it’s going to be really good for our team.”

With the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair filling the Keystone Centre this week, the trip actually began a little earlier, with the Wheat Kings heading over to the newly constructed J&G Homes Arena for practice on Monday and Tuesday.

It will be a very different story at the Art Hauser Centre, Prince Albert’s aging arena that is in the process of being replaced with a new 4,500-seat facility.

MacGillivray, who was a member of the Raiders staff from 1996 to 1998, said the intimate Art Hauser Centre is a challenge.

“It’s always a tough building to play in, whether the P.A. Raiders are a real good team or a struggling team,” MacGillivray said. “They always play hard. P.A. has played really well this year. They were a team that was written off early in the season when they traded their captain (Kaiden Guhle) to Edmonton but they’re a good club. They work hard, they make you work for everything, they’re a physical team.

“It’s tough to play in that building. It’s fast ice, it’s a good atmosphere. If you can’t get up to play in P.A. … It’s one of the better places in the league to play I think because of the atmosphere. The fans are right on top of you. It’s a fun place to play and it feels good when you get wins out of there.”

Roersma agreed.

“It’s going to be tough games,” Roersma said. “They play hard every single game so we have to match their pace and bring our game, play physical, play smart, get pucks deep, and do what we can do.”

An unintended bonus to the schedule is that it replicates a playoff series, with a pair of games in a couple of days in the other team’s rink. MacGillivray said that will be useful as the playoffs near.

Brandon plays its final regular season game on April 16, also in Prince Albert.

“It’s good in that sense,” MacGillivray said. “You understand how to prepare during the day, how to use your off-day wisely. It’s a good time for us to get on the road again. I think it’s nice to be together at this time of year and be on the road and be in the battle together, and having the extra guys watching and being around the group as well.

“We’re going to have everybody on the trip. It is preparation for down the road. We want to make sure we’re doing the little things right and building our game.

“We’re playing desperate teams right now, which is good. More importantly we want to keep working on our game and building our game.”

Barring a collapse for the ages — and a run of wins by the teams chasing them equivalent to the 1951 push to the National League pennant by the New York Giants — Brandon is virtually assured a playoff spot. Still, they want to be playing well when the post-season begins.

“I think confidence is a big thing,” Danielson said. “I think we’re pretty confident in our group already but it’s just building over time as we keep building up the wins.”

The Wheat Kings finally had everybody on the ice at practice on Monday, but injured captain Ridly Greig and overager Marcus Kallionkieli were both in no-hit jerseys. Their statuses remain day to day, however, with no guarantee that either is close to a return.

“We’re not going to see our full lineup,” MacGillivray said. “We might not see it all year. That’s the reality. I don’t like talking about it because it’s kind of an excuse and I don’t want to make excuses. The reality is that we’re close to 200 or over 200 man games lost in a 59-game season so far.

“It is what it is. At the same time, you could see on Saturday night the results of having those things happen. You get a Rylen Roersma who is playing in a different spot, you get a Ben Thornton who is playing in a different spot. Those guys are getting good experience. (Jacob) Hoffrogge, (Logen) Hammett are getting more minutes than they maybe typically would because of injuries.

“In a weird way, it’s been a good thing but it’s frustrating because you don’t really know how good we can be. Hopefully we’ll get healthy at the right time and then we’ll see and take a run at having a real good playoff.”

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