Patrick King

BRANDON, Man. -- To steal a line from one of my all-time favourite movies, Invincible: "Character is tested when you're up against it."

The Brandon Wheat Kings stared adversity square in the face on Friday and proved just how much character the home squad has. Down 2-0 then 3-1 and facing a red-hot goaltender, the Wheat Kings showed the heart of a champion in an underdog story that would even leave a 30-year-old bartender smiling.

Their test of character began early in this tournament after an embarrassing 9-3 loss to the defending champion Windsor Spitfires and a 5-1 defeat to Calgary. The Wheat Kings dropped two of three round-robin games and were facing a Calgary team that had beaten them five consecutive times.

Brandon endured a world of pain handed out by the Western Hockey League champion Hitmen over the last month. Friday's semifinal provided them with a rare third chance at redemption, but their start forced them into a corner where they came out fighting.

"I think that's obviously something we've been stressing and preaching all week is resiliency," defenceman Travis Hamonic said. "If something isn't going our way, we're going to put our feet on the ice, plant our feet and stop and push back the other direction.

"After the 2-0 goal, we kind of had that vibe on the bench."

The main reason the Wheat Kings felt that vibe was due to the play of Hitmen goaltender Martin Jones. Brandon came out firing and was the better team from the outset, but was unable to beat Jones until early in the second period.

Jones made several highlight-reel saves in the opening frame, turning away several sure goals. Brayden Schenn, in particular, was stymied on several occasions and later admitted he felt the team wouldn't be able to beat Jones the way he had been playing.

But the Wheat Kings found a way coming out from the break with Swedish import Alexander Urbom picking the short side top corner. It became obvious Jones would not be beat down low so the Wheat Kings began firing upstairs and found Jones' kryptonite.

"We obviously watched some video on Martin and we know that he's a big goaltender and he goes down a lot," Hamonic said. "We couldn't beat him down low for the last couple of games so we figured we might as well get some pucks upstairs."

Jones nearly stole the win for the Hitmen who played a less-than-perfect game in front of him. His heroics weren't enough and co-captain Ian Schultz will have a long time to think about what went wrong in the team's defensive commitment.

"(Jones) stood on his head in the first and kept us in it and gave us an opportunity to walk away with it," Schultz said. "We let him down in the end and it will take a long time for me to forgive myself for that."

The Hitmen were designated as the home team after beating the Wheat Kings on Wednesday and possessed the coveted last change. The crowd, however, rose to the challenge and proved that home ice can never be underestimated in a single-game elimination.

"You never want to lose whether it's in your backyard or in practice or an elite regular season game or in as big of a game as this one," Hamonic said. "We didn't want to lose in front of our home crowd."

The Wheat Kings were undoubtedly the better team Friday and used the home crowd to their benefit.

Brandon had not yet played to its potential in this tournament.

In their only other win, a 4-0 decision over the Québec Major Junior Hockey League champion Moncton Wildcats, the victory had less to do with their play than that of the Wildcats. Moncton had nothing to give in that loss to the Wheat Kings after a deflating loss the previous afternoon to Calgary.

Given the rust and the fact they had yet to resemble the team that had won 50 games this season, they appeared destined for a quick exit in the semifinal. But that character shone through when they were pushed against it.

The Wheat Kings' next character test comes Sunday in the MasterCard Memorial Cup final against the Spitfires. Brandon won't need to look far for motivation after having already been embarrassed at the hands of the Ontario Hockey League champions.

"Obviously that is the one advantage we do have as the hosts is we're playing in our building," Wheat Kings head coach Kelly McCrimmon said.

The Wheat Kings have one more hill to climb in Sunday's final, but their character may never again be questioned.