Ice @ Wheat Kings

[dagley]

BRANDON GAME NOTES: The WHEAT KINGS put a 2-game winning streak on the line Saturday night when they play host to the KOOTENAY ICE…This is the third of a pivotal 6-game WHL home stand for the WHEAT KINGS, who blanked MOOSE JAW 1-0 on Wednesday, before dumping the visiting KAMLOOPS BLAZERS 5-2 on Friday…Last night’s win, coupled with SWIFT CURRENT’S 3-2 OT loss to MEDICINE HAT moved the WHEAT KINGS into a tie with the BRONCOS for second place in the Eastern Division, with two games in hand. The victory also moved them to within four points of the front running REGINA PATS, who play the BLADES in SASKATOON Saturday…As for the Conference, BRANDON is tied for 6th place and trails 5th place MEDICINE HAT by one point and the fourth place ICE by three…WHEAT KINGS have collected at least a point in six straight games on home ice (5-0-1-0). Overall, BRANDON is 20-8-1-0 at home and 16-13-1-2 on the road…Wednesday’s win clinched BRANDON a playoff berth for the fifteenth time in the past 16 seasons, including eight straight years…The WHEAT KINGS, who complete this home stand this week with games against CHILLIWACK (Wednesday), LETHBRIDGE (Friday) and CALGARY (Saturday), are 6-3-2-0 in the month of February and 5-3-2-0 in their last ten games.

VS. KOOTENAY: This is the fourth and final regular season meeting between these two teams…BRANDON is unbeaten (3-0-0) against the ICE, having outscored KOOTENAY 10-5…In the only game played at Westman Place, the WHEAT KINGS edged the ICE 4-3 on October 7th…TYLER DITTMER (3-3-6) and MATT LOWRY (1-5-6) lead BRANDON in scoring while JOE CALIGIURI has appeared in all three games, compiling a 1.67 goals against average and a .931 save percentage.

LAST GAME: ANDREW CLARK scored once and set up two others Friday night as the WHEAT KINGS beat the BLAZERS 5-2…For the second straight game, JAY FEHR scored what turned out to be the game winner as the line of CLARK, FEHR and MATT LOWRY combined for three goals and seven points…DANIEL BARTEK, on a first period penalty shot and rookie BRAYDEN SCHENN also scored for the WHEAT KINGS, who outshot the BLAZERS 41-22.

MILESTONES: Captain DARYL BOYLE, who has missed the past three games with a shoulder problem, played his 250th career game last Wednesday in Vancouver. He’s also three assists shy of the century mark in his 4-year WHL career…JOE CALIGIURI’S shutout on Wednesday moved him into a tie with ANDREW HAYES and ROBERT MCVICAR for 9th place on the club’s all time list…17-year old blueliner COLBY ROBAK will be playing in his 100th career game Friday…Injured blueliner THERAN YEO is one game shy of the 200-game plateau in his Western League career.

INJURIES: BRANDON is expected to be missing all three of its overagers – BOYLE, THERAN YEO and TYLER DITTMER – for the fourth straight game tonight. While BOYLE and YEO (ankle) are listed as day to day, DITTMER is out indefinitely with a broken finger…Also missing this weekend is 19-year old defenceman CHAD ERB (broken wrist).

SCHENN CHASING THE BOMBER: 16-year old sensation BRAYDEN SCHENN currently leads the WHEAT KINGS in scoring (24-35-59) and should he finish the year on top he will become the first BRANDON rookie to win the BRANDON SUN scoring trophy since Minnedosa’s RON CHIPPERFIELD led BRANDON in 1970-71 (40-43-83)…The former first round bantam draft choice is currently third in scoring among WHL rookies, trailing JAMIE BENN of KELOWNA and TJ GALIARDI of CALGARY by one point…He’s second in goals, assists and GWG by first year players.

[sbtatter]

Wow, that was painful to watch. Let's call a spade a spade, we were outworked tonight, and, Lazaruk outplayed Caliguri. The saves on Schenn and Glennie were top class. But the ice outworked us all night, thankfully we haven't seen that many games this year. The rookie line was far and away the best line. No defenceman played very well. This was the most important game of the weekend to win, 4 pointer, and we couldn't do it. I was hoping to see someone come out and start a fight, throw a bodycheck, something to spark the team, but it didn't happen.
Regroup, I think they'll beat C'wack but I won't be there to see it unfortunately.

[dagley]

Oh boy, I guess we were kind of due for a stinker at home. You must give credit to Lazaruk, or else the game would have been closer just on pure skill. Hopefully they have a strong week next week with three HUGE games against Chilliwack, Calgary and Lethbridge. 4 points is realistic.

[Scout]

You may think that your team stunk up the place, but the Ice are a very good team and well coached. In Swift they were relentless on their attack. Lazaruk put on a goaltending clinic here and was the best goalie on that night i have seen all year. He made some highlight reel saves on three or four occasions. This kid is good. There defence is big and mobile. They shut down the center and make the forwards go to the outside. They clear the front of the net very well and they see the ice very well also. Their forwards have speed and are relentless on their attack. They continually back check and help their D out. Not one of their players looked like they were fourth liners. They are very well balanced from the goal out. I'm not so sure your team stunk as much as the Ice forced the play. These guys are very well coached and play as a team. Like i said, Lazaruk is a top notch goalie who if the forwards or D faulter then he is there to make the save. Very good team to watch and they throw the opposing teams system into helter-skelter.

Scout

[HURRICANE'S ROCK]

Oh boy, I guess we were kind of due for a stinker at home. You must give credit to Lazaruk, or else the game would have been closer just on pure skill. Hopefully they have a strong week next week with three HUGE games against Chilliwack, Calgary and Lethbridge. 4 points is realistic.
The way they hand out points you could win just one game and get four point. Lose the 2 to Calg and Leth in O/T.......just kidding. vci34