Regular season meetings:
BDN 5-1 Dec. 1 at the Enmax Centre
BDN 3-0 Dec. 15 at Westman Place
LET 7-2 Feb. 23 at the Enmax Centre
BDN 6-0 March 6 at Westoba Place
Series leaders:
BDN
Ty Lewis 3G, 3A
Connor Gutenberg 3G, 2A
Stelio Mattheos 2G, 2A
Evan Weinger 2G, 1A
Logan Thompson .956 save percentage, 2 shutouts
LET
Calen Addison 1G, 3A
Jordy Bellerive 1G, 2A
Dylan Cozens 1G, 2A
Brad Morrison 2G
Stuart Skinner .889 save percentage
Logan Flodell .875 save percentage (one game started)
Regular season leaders:
BDN
Ty Lewis 44G, 56A, 100 Pts
Stelio Mattheos 43G, 47A, 90 Pts
Evan Weinger 31G, 26A, 57 Pts
Logan Thompson 29-22-1-2, .908 save percentage, 3.41 goals against average
LET
Jordy Bellerive 46G, 46A, 92 Pts
Brad Morrison 27G, 48A, 75 Pts
Calen Addison 11G, 54A, 65 Pts
Logan Flodell 38-18-4-0, .909 save percentage, 3.13 goals against average
Playoff history:
2007-08 LET 4-2 first round
1997-98 BDN 4-0 first round
1993-94 BDN 4-1 second round
Schedule:
Game 1: Fri. Apr. 6, BDN vs LET (7 p.m. MDT) at the Enmax Centre
Game 2: Sat. Apr. 7, BDN vs LET (7 p.m. MDT) at the Enmax Centre
Game 3: Tue. Apr. 10, LET vs BDN (7 p.m. CDT) at Westoba Place
Game 4: Wed. Apr. 11, LET vs BDN (7 p.m. CDT) at Westoba Place
Game 5: Fri. Apr. 13, BDN vs LET (7 p.m. MDT) at the Enmax Centre
Game 6: Sat. Apr. 15, LET vs BDN (4 p.m. CDT) at Westoba Place
Game 7: Tue. Apr. 17, BDN vs LET (7 p.m. MDT) at the Enmax Centre
It took two games, but the Brandon Wheat Kings found their stride in a must win scenario back home in Manitoba.
Now faced with a similar road trip in Round 2, the Wheat Kings will need more of what got them here if they are to knock off the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
The Medicine Hat Tigers used the first two games of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal to blitz the Wheat Kings. The Tigers converted on 5-of-11 power plays, while killing off the first 9-of-10 Wheat King power plays.
The tables turned in Game 3, when the Wheat Kings began to crank things up on special teams. They closed out the series by going 3-for-9 on the power play and shut the Tigers down with a penalty kill that went 10-for-11 the remainder of the way, including killing off eight-straight man advantages to end the series.
Much of that falls onto the goaltender, who is often the best penalty killer on the ice.
In the start of the Tigers series, the Wheat Kings didn’t receive great goaltending.
After missing the last five games of the season with a lower-body injury, 20-year-old netminder Logan Thompson factored back between the pipes for Game 1 and 2, but he clearly wasn’t himself. He was removed from each start for the backup Dylan Myskiw.
Thompson was not himself in the postseason. In his two starts at the Canalta Centre, he went 0-2 with a 8.30 goals against average and a .765 save percentage, a far cry from the 3.41 GAA and .908 save percentage he posted in the regular season.
Myskiw saved the Wheat Kings season. He bailed his club out by posting a ridiculous 2.54 goals against average and a .928 save percentage, winning each game he started, including a 52 save performance in the Game 6 overtime win.
It was remarkable to see how Mark Rassell was able to light up the Wheat Kings in Round 1 with so much of his high-powered supporting cast on the shelf. Even with no return from Mason Shaw, losing his top line centre James Hamblin five minutes before the playoffs started and seeing Hamblin’s replacement in Elijah Brown go down in the series, Rassell was still able to rattle off eight goals and five assists.
The Wheat Kings are going to have their hands full with a lot more depth up front than what the Tigers were able to trot out there.
The Hurricanes fanned out their top offensive threats across their top three lines and have to be licking their chops thinking of all the scoring chances the Wheat Kings allow.
Brad Morrison is on fire right now on the Hurricanes top unit, having racked up 16 points in five games against the Red Deer Rebels and has taken some pressure off Jordy Bellerive, who piled up 10 points alongside Dylan Cozens and Taylor Ross.
On the Wheat Kings side of things, they will definitely need more from Stelio Mattheos if they are to advance.
After scoring 43 goals in 68 regular season games, Mattheos only recorded three goals — one of which was an empty netter — in the first round. Ty Lewis, Linden McCorrister and Luka Burzan all showed they can be impactful players in the playoffs, now they need their assistant captain to step up and play like the dangerous sniper he is.
At times in the first round, Wheat Kings Head Coach David Anning constructed a line of Lewis, Mattheos and Burzan to create as much fire power as possible for a few shifts during desperate times, as opposed to when he used them on separate lines throughout the regular season. It will be interesting to see how often he tries to ignite a fire on the scoreboard by throwing those three players together again.
An area where the Wheat Kings will need to be sharp is on the power play. The Hurricanes got a little careless in the first round — probably because they were running away with it and got into some bad habits — but they did take the most penalties per games in the first round 30.
Even though they killed off 80.0 per cent of their short-handed circumstances, they will be dealing with a more lethal unit that will be looking to strike every time they are out on the ice.
The Wheat Kings will also get the added boost of playing home games in their home arena once again.
In the first round, the Wheat Kings were displaced to Dauphin for their three home games to accommodate the annual Royal Manitoba Winter Fair. Now that the Fair is over, and all the combines, livestock and festivities have gone their separate ways, the Westoba Place should be jam-packed to cheer on the local team once again. Even though the Wheat Kings went 3-0 on home ice in the first round, sleeping in their own beds each night and using their own dressing room should add an extra boost to the hockey club.
This series is expected to go the distance and will feature many thrilling, back-and-forth affairs.
Both teams traded away key cogs at the deadline on the offensive and defensive side of the puck. It’s incredible to think that one of these two clubs — that lessened their current team for future assets — will appear in the Eastern Conference final.
From Lethbridge beat writer Doug Wyrostok:
How did Lethbridge get here?
In a series that many predicted would be long and hard fought, the Lethbridge Hurricanes dispatched the Red Deer Rebels in only five games.
Overage speedster Brad Morrison led the way for the Canes, notching six goals and 10 assists to lead the WHL playoffs in scoring.
After Morrison, it seemed like everyone chipped in. Captain Jordy Bellerive had 10 points, Taylor Ross had nine and Calen Addison had seven in the Red Deer series.
Logan Flodell was solid in net for Lethbridge, getting his first playoff win and first playoff shutout in the series.
What they need to do to win:
Keep scoring. The Lethbridge offence got rolling and never really let up on the Rebels. The power play was nearly unstoppable at times. They likely wont get as many iffy goals on Brandon’s Dylan Myskiw, so they will have to make sure their chances count.
Flodell will have to come up big in the series. Coming over from Swift Current, he saw a healthy dose of the Wheat Kings and knows what they’re all about. Lethbridge will have to win the goaltending battle to win the series.
Discipline is a must. Lethbridge was guilty of too many penalties in the Red Deer series, many of them of the dumb variety. They need to stay out of the box, keeping the man advantages to a minimum.
