The Calgary Hitmen are coming off a four-point weekend that included a two-game sweep of the Red Deer Rebels. Calgary will look to continue its three-game win streak this week against both Manitoba teams before hosting Red Deer once again. The five-game homestand is part of Calgary’s busiest month of January and will wrap up February 7th.
On Wednesday, Calgary will battle Winnipeg as the ICE will travel to Calgary for the first time since their relocation. Earlier this month, the ICE and Hitmen split games with a regulation victory each in back-to-back evenings at the Wayne Fleming Arena. Despite the fact that the ICE has the youngest roster by quite a margin, the club has put together a very respectable record thus far, good enough for a lead in the East Division. Led by Peyton Krebs, the ICE has managed to win 16 of their last 20 contests while scoring an average of 3.7 goals per game. Captain Krebs has been vital to their recent success, as the Vegas Golden Knights prospect has produced 13 points in his last six games with six goals. The ICE bolstered their blue line at the deadline, acquiring Dallas Stars prospect Dawson Barteaux from Red Deer who has been nothing short of terrific since joining Winnipeg. The 19-year-old right-shot defenseman already has eight points in just six games and is a big reason the ICE power play has scored on nearly 48 percent of man advantages since the deadline.
On Friday, the Hitmen will then host the Brandon Wheat Kings as the teams square up for their third contest of the year. These two clubs have also split the season series thus far with Brandon squeezing out one extra point in an overtime loss. The Wheat Kings as of late have received excellent goaltending from overage import Jiri Patera. On Saturday, Patera had an eight-game winning streak broken at the hands of the Lethbridge Hurricanes. During this streak, Patera posted a 0.968 save percentage while earning his second WHL Goaltender of the Week award of the season. Unfortunately for the Hitmen, Brandon is yet another Manitoba team tearing it up lately, earning 21 of their last 22 possible points. The most recent meeting between the two teams saw Calgary rack up 44 penalty minutes while Brandon easily held Calgary’s top offensive contributors off the scoresheet for the most part. For this matchup, the story will likely be how the top two lines for Calgary can perform as Mark Kastelic and Riley Stotts have been held from the scoresheet in both meetings. The Hitmen will also be put to the test against a breakout top six for the Wheat Kings with the likes of Ben McCartney and Cole Reinhardt in the midst of career years.
Lastly, the Hitmen will finish the weekend against the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday. The Hitmen and Rebels are fresh off a home-and-home that saw Calgary dominate in both games, winning each 5-2. Calgary received scoring from all over the lineup and with the recent strong play of Brayden Peters were able to fend off the divisional rival. Both teams will be coming off 7 PM games from the evening before and will be forced to play with well under 20 hours of recovery.
Following this week’s games, Calgary will complete its homestand against the Prince Albert Raiders after a six-day break.
