Friday Night Hockey returns to the airwaves with Game 1 of the WHL Championship featuring the Brandon Wheat Kings and the Seattle Thunderbirds.
The Wheat Kings finished the regular season with points in 13 straight games, while the Thunderbirds ended the regular season with points in 14 straight. Brandon is 12-4 in the playoffs, while the Thunderbirds have lost just once in 13 games. The distance between the two cities is more than 2,000 km and thus will require a 2-3-2 format beginning in Brandon.
Seattle will play for a league title for just the second time in franchise history, the last being in 1996-97 with a team that featured Patrick Marleau. Seattle was bound to have a solid season based on its 1997-born core group. That group includes Islanders first-rounder Matthew Barzal, Rangers prospect Ryan Gropp, Edmonton property Ethan Bear and Columbus draftee Keegan Kolesar amongst others.
Having enjoyed a healthy season, Barzal put up 88 points in 58 games in a season that included participation for Canada at the world juniors. He’s one of the best playmakers in the CHL and will be looking to prove himself on the big stage. Gropp has played in just six playoff games, but has game winners in two of those matches. Keegan Kolesar is a big body who can control a game at will. He missed Seattle’s first two playoff games, but has performed well.
The Thunderbirds have secondary scoring with the likes of U.S. world junior Scott Eansor, Nolan Volcan and Donovan Neuls. Seattle’s forwards are fast and will have no problem playing the pace of game Brandon will want to establish.
Defensively, the Thunderbirds rely on size, experience and physicality. Over-agers Jerret Smith and Jared Hauf are 6-foot-3 and 6-foot-5 respectively and weigh 225 lbs. Turner Ottenbreit is 6-foot-3, 192 and plays with edge.
Bear is looking like a steal for the Oilers after having been selected in the fifth round of the 2015 draft. He averaged just under a point per game in the regular season and is the leading defenceman scorer heading into the championship with six goals and 15 points.
Bryan Allbee was brought in from Kootenay to shore up the back end, while Jarret Tyszka has been a mainstay as Seattle’s first-round pick in the 2014 bantam draft.
In goal, a move to secure over-ager Landon Bow has paid huge dividends. Bow finished the regular season with a 16-6-0-0 record, a 1.76 goals-against average and a .938 save percentage in 23 games after being acquired from Swift Current and his post-season numbers have been even better (12-1-0, 1.54, .936%). Bow attended Anaheim’s camp last fall and will be motivated to earn another NHL invite with a strong performance in this series.
Seattle’s power play finished third in the regular season operating at 23.7 per cent, but has not enjoyed the same success in the playoffs, where they’ve scored just seven goals in 45 chances for a 15.6 per cent efficiency.
In an oddity, the Thunderbirds finished the regular season with a 16-18-2-0 road record, but are a perfect 6-0 in the playoffs, including two wins in each of Prince George, Everett and Kelowna, three of the toughest road rinks in the league.
Individual Stats | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Top Scorers | GP | G | A | PTS | Note |
Matthew Barzal | 13 | 5 | 14 | 19 | 7th WHL |
Ethan Bear | 13 | 6 | 9 | 15 | 1st WHL D |
Scott Eansor | 13 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 1st WHL 3 GWG |
Keegan Kolesar | 11 | 6 | 4 | 10 | |
Nolan Volcan | 13 | 2 | 7 | 9 |
Team Stats | Rank | |
---|---|---|
PP | 7/45=15.6% | 14th |
PK | 8/60=86.7% | 3rd |
GF/gm | 3.23 | 5th |
GA/gm | 1.62 | 1st |
NHL drafted/signed players
Matthew Barzal, NYI (16th, 2015)
Ryan Gropp, NYR (41st, 2015)
Keegan Kolesar, CLB (69th, 2015)
Ethan Bear EDM, (124th, 2015)
NHL Central Scouting mid-term ranks
Turner Ottenbreit (No. 179)
Under the radar: With all the hype surrounding Barzal and Bear, Scott Eansor is often forgotten about. He possesses great speed, handles the puck well, and is dangerous off the rush or working for tips or rebounds in front of the net. His play is reminiscent of former Spokane chief Tyler Johnson.
It should come as no surprise that the Wheat Kings are playing for a league title for the second straight season. A sweep at the hands of the Kelowna Rockets in 2015 should provide all the motivation this deep Brandon team needs. Brandon got its scare right away in the playoffs, dropping its first two games to the Edmonton Oil Kings on home ice. Since that time, the Wheat Kings have lost just twice, once in the Moose Jaw series and once in the Red Deer Series.
New Jersey first-rounder John Quenneville is arguably playing the best hockey of his career. He can play the role of the agitator, but back it up with deft point-producing ability in all situations. He leads the WHL in playoff scoring with 13 goals and 24 points.
Not to be outdone, 2017 draft-eligible phenom Nolan Patrick had five points in the clincher against Red Deer on April 29. There is nothing he can’t do and should go first overall in June of 2017. Florida prospect Jayce Hawryluk has also been huge for the Wheaties despite scoring just twice after lighting the lamp 47 times during the regular season. Washington free agent signee Tim McGauley, and Minnesota draft pick Reid Duke are more than capable of adding offence.
Because of its depth, there isn’t really a bottom six in Brandon’s lineup. Tyler Coulter, Tanner Kaspick and rookie Stelio Mattheos are all dangerous players that sprinkle the lineup.
The scoring doesn’t stop with the forwards. Draft-eligible Kale Clague has had a remarkable second half and playoffs. He is looking much more like the first-rounder many projected at the start of the season. Of course, recently signed Macoy Erkamps and Philadelphia first-rounder Ivan Provorov continue to blot the scoresheet. The trio sits in the top five in defencemen scoring. Mitchell Wheaton has experience with Kelowna from last season. James Shearer and the underrated Jordan Thomson round out Brandon’s group of six.
Don’t look at Jordan Papirny’s save percentage as an indicator of his success. Brandon is a heavy puck possession team and as a result, has limited the opposition to just over 28 shots per game, making save percentage a diminishing factor. Papirny is well seasoned, having played in 44 playoff games, with a combined 29-14-1 record, a 2.85 goals-against average and .912 save percentage over his career. He’s been known to bend, but rarely break and will be leaned on to combat the speedy group of Seattle forwards.
At just over 20 per cent efficiency in the playoffs, Brandon’s power play is always dangerous. The same can be said about the penalty kill. The Wheat Kings were deadly with the man-disadvantage this season, leading the league with 23 shorthanded goals, and that trend has continued with another five shorties in the playoffs.
Individual Stats | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Top Scorers | GP | G | A | PTS | Note |
John Quenneville | 16 | 13 | 11 | 24 | 1st WHL |
Nolan Patrick | 16 | 10 | 14 | 24 | 2nd WHL |
Tim McGauley | 16 | 8 | 13 | 21 | 4th WHL |
Reid Duke | 16 | 6 | 14 | 20 | 5th WHL |
Jayce Hawryluk | 16 | 2 | 18 | 20 | 6th WHL |
Team Stats | Rank | |
---|---|---|
PP | 13/64=20.3% | 6th |
PK | 12/58=79.3% | 9th |
GF/gm | 4.44 | 1st |
GA/gm | 2.88 | 6th |
NHL drafted/signed players
Ivan Provorov, PHI (7th, 2015)
John Quenneville, NJ (30th, 2014)
Jayce Hawryluk, FLA (32nd, 2014)
Mitch Wheaton, DET (139th, 2013)
Reid Duke, MIN (169th, 2014)
Tim McGauley, WAS (Signed free agent)
MaCoy Erkamps, OTT (Signed free agent)
NHL Central Scouting mid-term ranks
Kale Clague (No. 27)
Tanner Kaspick (No. 79)
Under the radar: Tanner Kaspick is a pest to play against. He drives the net hard and plays a top-notch physical game. He packs punch when body checking and is skilled enough to play all over the lineup.