Wheat Kings prepare for league-leading Thunderbirds

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This article was published 09/01/2023 (714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Wheat Kings and Seattle Thunderbirds are set to renew acquaintances this evening.

The two met in the 2016 Western Hockey League final, but it appears the league-leading Thunderbirds (28-5-1-1) are a lot closer to returning to the big dance than the Wheat Kings (16-18-4-0).

Seattle has aggressively retooled its roster in the last few months as it makes another run at a league title, which it won for the first time in 2017.

Brandon assistant coach Mark Derlago said his club has a tall task ahead of it.

“They’re a very deep team,” Derlago said. “They have a good D corps, good goalie and then a lot of firepower up front. They’re deep all around.”

It’s been a while since the two clubs have met, with the pandemic wiping out regular season games between the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.

The Wheat Kings have won the two most recent meetings, 3-2 in overtime in Seattle on Oct. 18, 2019 and 7-3 in Brandon on Jan. 4, 2019 at Westoba Place.

“It’s exciting to play those teams,” second-year defenceman Quinn Mantei said of the Western Conference. “You only get to play them once a year so you want to make an impression and make it last a while.

“We want to play those stronger teams hard for sure because you never know what might happen in the future. You might end up coming against them in the playoffs. I think it will be fun. It’s always a challenge playing those top teams.”

In the series between the two teams in the Internet era starting in 1996-97, Brandon has 13 regulation victories and four overtime wins, while Seattle has nine regulation victories and one in both overtime and a shootout. They’ve met just once in the playoffs, with Brandon earning the league title in 2016 in five games after winning 3-2 in overtime in each of the first three matchups.

“Specifically with Seattle, there is a little rivalry that goes back to that playoff series,” rookie forward Evan Groening said, noting it is special to play them. “I would say a bit because you never see them and want to establish yourself.”

Brandon has two players in its lineup who have played against Seattle this season — former Victoria Royals Tony Wilson and Luke Shipley — and just two players left from the game in 2019, Nolan Ritchie and Jake Chiasson.

Derlago’s best memory of playing the Thunderbirds during his Wheat Kings playing career was a 5-3 loss in Seattle on Feb. 14, 2004 that featured a second period dust-up.

“I remember going to Seattle once and there was a line brawl,” Derlago said. “I think I was 17 at that time. That was kind of a blur for me.”

It’s a lot less likely a brawl will occur tonight. The high-scoring Thunderbirds lead the league with 154 goals, and have allowed the second fewest with 84.

They’ve won nine of their last 10 games and also have the most road wins in the WHL with 14.

“They’ve got a lot of good players over there, a few games coming back from a big tournament with the world juniors,” Mantei said. “They have a lot of strong pieces over there that are dangerous. We have to play our game and manage the puck and be careful when those guys are on the ice.”

Incredibly, Seattle had four players on Canada’s gold-medal squad, goalie Thomas Milic, defencemen Nolan Allan and Kevin Korchinski, plus big forward Reid Schaefer.

“They’re a very skilled team, as we all know,” Groening said. “Personally I’ve never played them so it’s going to be a new experience for me but I know they’re a hard-working team and have lots of skill. We have to be on our A game.”

In its previous matchups against the U.S. Division, Brandon was beaten 6-3 by the Everett Silvertips on Nov. 2 and fell 4-3 in overtime on Nov. 4 to the Tri-City Americans, and then beat the Spokane Chiefs 2-1 on Dec. 10 and the Portland Winterhawks 3-2 last Friday.

“That was a big win,” Mantei said of the Portland game. “I thought we played a really good game and that can go a long way for our confidence for our group. We just have to build off it and keep getting better.”

The Wheat Kings won three of their five games in British Columbia in October against B.C. Division clubs in their other Western Conference matchups.

Brandon will be looking to improve on its record at Westoba Place, which is worst in the East Division at 7-9-2-0. Five of those wins have come in their last seven outings at home.

“That’s been a huge talking point for us,” Derlago said. “It’s definitely been brought up a few times in the room and the guys have talked about it a few times as well. This should be a hard barn to play in, it always has been, and we need to get back to that.”

Later this week, Brandon hosts the Medicine Hat Tigers on Friday and Moose Jaw Warriors on Saturday, and then head out for four games on the road. They don’t play at home again until Jan. 31.

The puck drops tonight at 7.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson