The Brandon Wheat Kings head into Red Deer and the MasterCard Memorial Cup on the heels of their third WHL Championship in the franchise’s long history. Their presence in Red Deer shouldn’t come as a surprise as they were a top-ranked CHL team before the season began and have a roster loaded with talent. Six drafted players and two other highly ranked NHL prospects give the Wheat Kings a pretty good look on paper.

Brandon are not paper champs, though. Kelly McCrimmon’s squad can score and score often. If you don’t manage the puck against these guys, you’re in for a long evening of hockey.

They can beat you in a track meet and, the Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL Championship round, they showed that they can grind out a win against a tough defensive club.

Pick your poison with Brandon, they’ll play it either way.

In this week’s edition, Jeff is joined by Sam Cosentino, Joey Kenward and Timo Meier for a wide-ranging MasterCard Memorial Cup preview.

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Strengths

Hawryluk, Patrick, et al

Jayce Hawryluk and Nolan Patrick are the two-headed monster that make Brandon’s top line one of the most dangerous in junior hockey. Both topped 100 points during the regular season and both have added 30 more in the playoffs. They are a handful, and if you slow down one the other can burn you, which the Seattle Thunderbirds learned as they watched Hawryluk pick up six points in the clinching game of the final.

But the Brandon attack doesn’t stop there. John Quenneville, Tim McGauley, Reid Duke are right behind Hawryluk and Patrick, all averaging better thana point per game in the playoffs. Speed and strength up front is the key for Brandon. They can transition turnovers into chances and once they establish themselves in your zone, will cycle you to death. You better have six strong defencemen to match these forwards.

Pos Name GP G A PTS +/- PIM PTS/G C Patrick, Nolan 21 13 17 30 19 16 1.43 C Hawryluk, Jayce 21 7 23 30 11 29 1.43 C Quenneville, John 21 16 11 27 17 8 1.29 C McGauley, Tim 21 8 18 26 6 8 1.24 C Duke, Reid 21 8 16 24 10 24 1.14 LW Coulter, Tyler 18 6 8 14 4 12 0.78 D Clague, Kale 21 6 8 14 5 8 0.67 D Erkamps, Macoy 21 4 10 14 24 18 0.67 D Provorov, Ivan 21 3 10 13 22 14 0.62 C Kaspick, Tanner 21 5 5 10 8 28 0.48 C Campbell, Duncan 21 1 8 9 7 11 0.43 C Mattheos, Stelio 21 4 3 7 4 10 0.33 D Wheaton, Mitch 21 1 6 7 4 14 0.33 D Shearer, James 21 2 3 5 0 0 0.24 LW Lewis, Ty 21 2 0 2 -2 8 0.1 C Gutenberg, Connor 20 1 1 2 -1 0 0.1 D Thomson, Jordan 21 1 1 2 4 14 0.1 LW Armour, Garrett 2 1 0 1 0 0 0.5 LW McCorrister, Linden 20 0 1 1 -1 2 0.05 D Higson, Schael 1 0 0 0 -1 0 0 G Thompson, Logan 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 D Matsuba, Mark 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 G Papirny, Jordan 21 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pos Name GP W L OTL SO GAA SV% G Thompson, Logan 1 0 0 0 0 2.65 0.92 G Papirny, Jordan 21 16 5 0 1 2.93 0.897

Blueline special

Philadelphia Flyers first-rounder Ivan Provorov highlights a talented and dynamic Wheat Kings defensive group. Provorov plays at both ends of the ice, will kick start the rush, quarterback the power play and has held his own against top players like Brayden Point and Mathew Barzal in the playoffs.

Macoy Erkamps and Kale Clague compliment Provorov—all can skate and add to the Brandon offensive onslaught. Veteran Mitch Wheaton has provided a physical presence for the Wheat Kings as well during their playoff run.

Possessive Wheaties

The key to Brandon’s success is puck possession, and they’re monsters. It starts in their own end where their defence gets the puck, gets it out and up to their talented forwards. Once in your zone they have one of the strongest cycle games around, generating a ton of chances.

According to WHLstats.ca they were the top possession team during the regular season with an esitmated Fenwick of 58.62 percent. They kept those numbers up in the playoffs and beat two other strong possession teams in Red Deer and Seattle.

They force just under 38 shots per game while only allowing 29, which is the result of those possession numbers. Brandon hits the Memorial Cup with a goals-per-game average of 4.24 thanks to 89 goals in 21 games while only allowing 62.

Weaknesses

Chances

The word ‘weakness’ may be strong in talking about areas Wheaties needs to improve on. They’ve been pretty hard to beat. But, as a team with the high-end offence they have, they sometimes will let the other team into it by allowing more quality chances at their end then they’d probably like.

It comes with the territory when you have the talent that the Wheat Kings feature, but playing in a tournament with teams that have as much talent, Brandon will want to tighten it up. Goalie Jordan Papirny’s save percentage in the playoffs is under .900 and that has more to say about the chances he’s faced than it does how well he’s playing.



In Hawryluk, the Florida Panthers might have found a second-round sleeper. (Larry MacDougal/CP)

One bad game

Whether it’s a mental lapse, or just playing down to their opponent, the Wheat Kings have had one ugly game in the last three rounds of their playoff run.

In the second round they got pasted by Moose Jaw in Game 3 by a 7-1 score. Against Red Deer, it was another Game 3 loss by 6-2 and in the final they got beat 6-1 by Seattle in Game 4. To Brandon’s credit, they bounced back each time to win and in a seven-game series you can absorb a loss like that. But if that bad game pops up in the Memorial Cup, it may be harder to overcome or worse yet, lead to elimination.

If McCrimmon can eliminate that one bad game this coming week, his Wheat Kings will be hard to beat and in the mix to win their first Memorial Cup championship.