If you only caught the first two periods of Brandon’s loss to Rouyn-Noranda, you’d have a hard time liking the WHL champs’ chance against London, who routed host Red Deer in the opening game of the 2016 MasterCard Memorial Cup tournament.
For 40 minutes, the Huskies beat the Wheat Kings down the ice. For 40 minutes, Brandon couldn’t match Rouyn-Noranda’s energy. For 40 minutes the best team in the WHL was struggling to keep up. If you only watched the last period of the Brandon-Rouyn-Noranda game, you had but one question: How did these guys give up five goals to the Huskies? No doubt, after the game coach Kelly McCrimmon and his players had to be asking the same thing. The Wheat Kings outshot Rouyn-Noranda 20-4 and that was a fair measure of the run of play. Brandon was two different teams over the course of 60 minutes, somehow getting the wake-up call in the second intermission.
All the news, analysis, highlights and stats, live from Red Deer.
The Knights’ performance against Red Deer was the tournament’s best start to finish, but Brandon played the best single period of hockey. After the game, even in the loss, the talk of the game was Wheat Kings centre John Quenneville’s skate-up, between-the-legs, wired-top-shelf breakaway goal, one for the ages, forever to be replayed in highlight-reel packages. What was no less impressive — and maybe to the Knights a bit more of a worry Monday night — was Ivan Provorov’s 130-foot breakout pass that hit Quenneville perfectly in stride, even with soft pressure, even with the Huskies folded back, trying to clog up the neutral zone.
Among the Wheat Kings who did more in the last 20 minutes than in the preceding two periods was centre Nolan Patrick, the projected first-overall pick in the 2017 NHL draft. Patrick was reacting rather than dictating and his decision-making was shaky at best until the Huskies took their foot off the gas. You might look for him to build on that momentum.
One Wheat King who has to be better — and smarter — is Jayce Hawryluk, whose second-period double minor for high-sticking led to the Huskies’ game-winner by Philippe Myers. Hawryluk too frequently crossed the line from pesky to risky and was minus-2 for the game. Hawryluk and his teammates can’t afford to put the potent Knights power play on the ice, especially not in the early game-shaping stages.
In this week’s edition, Jeff is joined by Sam Cosentino, Joey Kenward and Timo Meier for a wide-ranging MasterCard Memorial Cup preview.
Listen now | iTunes | Podcatchers
While Toronto Maple Leafs draftee Mitch Marner (two goals, three assists, plus-4) and projected top-10 pick Matthew Tkachuk (10 shots all on his own) got a lot of the ink after the Red Deer game, you had to come away impressed with defenceman Olli Juolevi, another projected top-10 draft-eligible who made key plays on a couple of goals that sent London racing out ahead of the Rebels.
Although it wasn’t a concern in the wake of their dominant opener — the game was already won and the team bus was running in the parking lot — Knights goaltender Tyler Parsons looked shaky on the goals he gave up. Again, it might have been a case of coach Dale Hunter rolling all four lines after his team went up six-zip. And it would be understandable if Hunter were playing the long game in the tournament, saving his fine china for special occasions like a final. Still, the last impressions left by Brandon and London, the last 20 minutes of its first games in this tournament, would lead you to believe that their game Monday might be more competitive than the box scores (or the first 40 minutes respectively) might suggest.
