Home is indeed sweet again for the Wheat Kings. But it’s a good thing they grabbed some points at Westoba Place while they could because they won’t be seeing very much of it over the next month and a half.
After beating the Red Deer Rebels 5-1 and the Prince Albert Raiders 7-3 on back-to-back nights, the Wheat Kings have won three in a row at home and outscored their opponents 19-7 in those games. Just in time for the other shoe to drop schedule-wise and see them go on several road trips, including by far their longest of the season next month.
The worst of the travel, however, comes after the break for the Wheat Kings, and the Christmas break provides a nice divider, allowing the Wheat Kings to worry about the next three games ahead of them and not look too far down the road. All three are divisional games, so the team will need to be focused. And with three players gone for the best possible reason, those who remain will need to be in top form.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year…
- Both the win over Red Deer and the win over Prince Albert carried some personal vindication for the Wheat Kings. Their previous loss to Red Deer left a sour taste in their mouths due to both the controversial goal review and the last-minute breakdown that provided Red Deer with the game-winner, while their previous loss to the Raiders stung even worse as they’d blown a three-goal lead in the third period. You could tell the Wheat Kings were unhappy with both results and they vented that frustration on their two opponents on back-to-back nights. It was impressive to see the jump right out of the gate against the Rebels, and probably even more impressive to see the Wheat Kings put the pedal down in the third period against the Raiders despite already having a two-goal lead. A running theme of both those wins and the 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings was continuing to press even after building a lead and not being content to be up by one or two. The Wheat Kings learned some hard lessons in that regard earlier this season, but they have definitely applied those lessons in the last three games.
- The game against the Prince Albert Raiders, the schedule makers repaid the Wheat Kings a favor they were owed from last season. The Raiders had played the previous night in Prince Albert, meaning they made a day trip from Prince Albert to Brandon (roughly seven hours of bus travel) prior to the game. With that in mind, it’s small wonder the Wheat Kings pulled away in the third period, piling up goals at a time where the bus legs must have been starting to set in for the Raiders. The Wheat Kings know full well what that’s like, having done the same trip in the other direction last season. The result? Almost the exact same thing in reverse, with the Raiders winning a 7-3 game on the strength of an excellent third period. The year before, the Wheat Kings were in the same boat again; they traveled to Prince Albert in a single day after having played at home the previous night, lost 6-2 in a game where the Raiders had their best period in the third, and then took a long bus ride back home that very same evening. That’s three years in a row a team has made this trip, and three years in a row the result has been a four-goal loss for the road-weary visitors. At this point, I think we can say a pattern is emerging. Is there really no way for the schedule makers to avoid setting up a day trip of this nature? The teams themselves will say “no excuses” after a loss like that but the results would say you’re setting one team up for a rough outing by doing this.
- Different players have stepped up at different times for the Wheat Kings on their winning streak, and they’ve had to with different guys being out of the lineup, but one player who has been consistently good for the last month (and really the entire season) has been Matteo Michels. Another multi-point game for him against the Raiders has seen him climb into second on the Wheat Kings in goals and third in points, and of course he continues to have a stranglehold on the team’s even strength point lead. Michels told me one difference when he came to Brandon from Regina was he felt a little more encouraged to use his creativity, and that combined with his tenacity and speed has led to an offensive eruption. To say he’s on pace for a career year is an understatement. Last season, Michels scored 12 goals and added eight assists in 47 games for the Wheat Kings following the trade from the Pats. This season, he’s got 11 goals and 23 points in 26 games.
- A very happy 16th birthday to Wheat Kings forward Jaxon Jacobson! Yes, he has only just today turned 16. He’s been named a WHL weekly award winner multiple times, been a point-per-game player for the Wheat Kings, and medaled at the World Under-17 challenge all before turning 16. It’s almost scary to think what might still be ahead for him. Scarier still is that young players, especially rookies, tend to come back after the Christmas break with a lot of jump in their step and another level to their game. Jacobson is already second on the team with 17 assists and has a total of 22 points in 22 games, one of five players on the roster firing at or over a point-per-game. If this is Jacobson pre-Christmas bump, what is his second half going to look like?
- For multiple reasons, one of the biggest goals the Wheat Kings got on Saturday night against the Raiders came off the stick of Rhett Ravndahl. By his own admission, he was an unlikely Teddy Bear Toss goal-scorer but it didn’t look like it on the play. He was in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, finished the play off like he’d been doing it his whole career, and signaled the teddies for takeoff. Not only was it the all-important first goal of the game for the Wheat Kings (and one coaches and players alike say they want to get out of the way relatively early) it also came just 20 seconds after the Raiders had opened the scoring. That quick and decisive response set the tone for the entire night.
- Ravndahl’s goal wasn’t the only milestone moment of the evening, however. Congratulations are in order for a pair of Wheat Kings defensemen (one of whom has been trying his hand at forward and finding success at it). First, to Adam Belusko for his first WHL goal. The epitome of a team-first guy, a player that head coach and GM Marty Murray says has done whatever has been asked of him with a smile on his face, Belusko bounced his first goal in with a perfectly placed shot off the mask of Dimitri Fortin. He picked up an assist in the game as well, and sent himself off to camp for Slovakia at the World Juniors on a high note (more on that in a moment). The team has asked a lot of Belusko; already playing in a new country on a new team and learning the North American style of game, they’ve asked him to learn a new position as well, playing forward rather than his natural position of defense. He’s been a very effective forward for the Wheat Kings, and as Marty said, he’s done it all with a smile on his face.
- Secondly, congratulations to defenseman Luke Shipley on his 100th (and 101st) WHL points! He didn’t just chisel on a cheap secondary assist for his century mark either. Shipley’s vision and touch put the puck precisely into the wheelhouse for Matteo Michels, who had a lot of net to stare down and didn’t waste it. On a very similar play, Shipley pushed his career point total to 101, this time sending it from the right point to Easton Odut for the tap-in. The Wheat Kings need Shipley to be a veteran presence on the back end, to be a reliable puck mover and play with a little snarl. So far this season, he’s answered by leading the team in points by a defenseman with 18 and leads the d-corps with a +13 rating. One of many Wheat Kings on track to post career-best numbers, he’s going to be counted on heavily in the coming weeks because….
- In what is a major feather in the organization’s cap, three Wheat Kings are off to their respective country’s camps to see if they can represent them at the World Juniors. The biggest stage in junior hockey could have a decidedly Wheat Kings flavor to it this year, as Carson Bjarnason for Canada, Dominik Petr for Czechia and, as mentioned, Adam Belusko for Slovakia could and probably should all be there. Bjarnason has a chance to be Canada’s starting goalie, probably the most pressure-packed job in the hockey world for that two-week period, while Petr ought to be a go-to offensive player for the Czechs. Belusko is one of a dozen defenders in camp for Slovakia, but given his extensive international resume, and given that he’s been a leader for them at tournaments in the past, you’ve got to think he’s in a good position. What this means for the Wheat Kings, besides potentially having three names to add to their wall of World Junior representatives, is some people are really going to need to step up. Bjarnason is the team’s starting goaltender, but his replacement is immediately obvious as Ethan Eskit will fill in for him as he has done so well throughout the season. Replacing Petr and Belusko’s presences will be more of a team job, especially since Petr is now tied for the team lead in scoring with 26 points in 23 games. Sometimes, while good players are away at the World Juniors, those who remain get a chip on their shoulder, almost daring other teams to underestimate them. Which players will do that for the Wheat Kings? Time will tell.
Three games against division rivals are on deck, two of them on the road, and as ever, the points matter every single night. But the recent three-game winning streak has given the Wheat Kings… well, not breathing room. Nobody from first through ninth in the Eastern Conference has what can reasonably be called breathing room. But it puts them second in the conference by points percentage, fourth overall, with games in hand on every team ahead of them. And boy, that’s about all you can ask for the in the Eastern Conference right now.
The craziest time of the year is ahead. The trade floodgates tend to open once the Christmas break is over, teams start drawing clearer lines in the sand between contenders and those who are rebuilding, and the games get more intense.
Oh, and the World Juniors are approaching. This really is one of the best times of the year to be involved with this sport.
