The Brandon Wheat Kings and Edmonton Oil Kings will face off in a pivotal Game 5 Sunday evening.
The Oil Kings rode the momentum of a tiebreaker win over Medicine Hat into Brandon to steal the first two games of the series. Since the series shifted to Edmonton, however, the Wheat Kings have evened the score, outpacing the Oil Kings 8-1 in Games 3 and 4.
Wheat Kings goaltender Jordan Papirny looked very pedestrian in the first two games but responded well with a 33-save effort in Game 3. Papirny needed to make just 15 saves in Game 4 to earn the shutout and even the series. He put up solid numbers again this season, registering over 3,000 minutes played with 31 wins and a .910 save percentage.
Brandon’s defence is anchored by Philadelphia Flyers first-rounder Ivan Provorov, who led all WHL defencemen with 73 points in the regular season. There are no holes in his game and he can eat a ton of minutes. Recently signed Macoy Erkamps finished second in defencemen scoring and more than two-thirds of his points were produced at even strength or short-handed. Draft eligible Kale Clague got off to a slow start, but he was durable and ended the regular season on a seven-game point streak. Mitchell Wheaton has battled injuries throughout his career but is more than capable when healthy. James Shearer and Jordan Thomson round out the top six.
There’s no question offence is the name of the game for the Wheat Kings — it comes at you from every angle. The Wheat Kings led the league with 319 goals scored, an average of almost 3.5 per game. Florida Panthers prospect Jayce Hawryluk had 17 goals in his final nine regular-season games to finish fourth in the league with 106 points. He paced the offence with four points in Games 3 and 4. Nolan Patrick put his typical slow start to bed, finishing with 20 points in the final nine regular-season games to finish fifth in the league with 102 points. New Jersey Devils prospect John Quenneville reached the 30-goal plateau and Minnesota Wild draftee Reid Duke has come into his own. Washington Capitals free-agent signee Tim McGauley is reliable in all situations, while Tanner Kaspick, Ty Coulter and rookie Stelio Mattheos are all regular contributors.
Jeff Marek hosts Sportsnet’s weekly CHL podcast, a one-stop shop for news, analysis, opinion and interviews covering the WHL, OHL and QMJHL.
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Edmonton had great success against the Wheat Kings, winning three of the four regular-season meetings against Brandon. The Oil Kings have been in playoff mode for a month, having been pushed by Medicine Hat, and that is a big reason why Edmonton was able to go into the Keystone Centre and take the first two games of the series. The 2-3-2 series format gave great hope to the Oil Kings by giving them a chance to end the series without having to go back to Brandon. That dream died in Game 2 as the Wheat Kings evened the series.
In a reversal of roles in goal, Payton Lee was definitely the story in Games 1 and 2, stopping 82 of 85 shots in the two Edmonton wins. He was good again in Game 3 but the Oil Kings had issues scoring. Brandon also made a point of going hard to the net to try and throw Lee off his game. The residual effect was more noticeable in Game 4 as Lee gave up five goals on 36 shots spread out over three periods.
Defensively, the Oil Kings must play a simple game and lean on the likes of Dysin Mayo, Aaron Irving and Ben Carroll to provide offence. Irving has done a nice job balancing his game to become a much more difficult player to play against. Mayo, an Arizona Coyotes prospect, had 43 points in the regular season but has been held pointless through four games. He has played a boatload of minutes but will still need to produce if Edmonton hopes to advance. Carroll has paced the Edmonton attack from the back so far in the playoffs with four points through the first four games. The aforementioned trio finished within Edmonton’s top six point producers during the regular season. Outside of the Big 3, Anatoli Elizarov can provide big minutes and physicality while Brayden Gorda and Kyle Yewchuk will likely fall victim to the TV timeouts and have their minutes cut as a result.
Goal scoring has been an ongoing issue with Edmonton. The Oil Kings finished 19th out of 22 teams in the regular season with just 2.74 goals per game. The issue reared its ugly head in Games 3 and 4, when Edmonton scored just once. Brett Pollock was the only point-per-game forward during the regular season. Getting Lane Bauer back in the lineup was important as he can provide faceoff prowess and is able to put up points. Brandon Baddock is playing for a contract but scoring does not come easy to the big man, who usually gets two or three chances a game. Andrew Koep, Davis Koch and Luke Bertolucci are similar in stature and point production, while Tyler Robertson and Jesse Roach have size and can provide net-front presence.
Three elements of Edmonton’s game must be present in order to win the series. First, power-play success. Brandon played a smothering Game 4 and gave Edmonton five power plays, although none of them clicked. Secondly, Edmonton must have balanced scoring, and not just from the forwards. Finally, the Oil Kings still have plenty of MasterCard Memorial Cup experience in the fold and will have to rely heavily on that to overcome the mighty Wheat Kings.
