Post-Season ‘Cats

While BU sports fans are out of luck if they want to see the Bobcats in action before September, there is another Brandon team that heated up their own regular season and has their eye on the top prize in their league. The Brandon Wheat Kings (our local WHL team, for those of you under a rock or in a library) is not only hosting the Memorial Cup at Westman Place on May 14-23, but they are on a run to try and earn their spot in the contest, rather than take their automatic host position.

The 4 team tournament features face-offs between the junior hockey powers of Canada—the winners of the QMJHL, OHL, WHL and the Wheaties themselves—in a round robin format. Brandon has yet to engrave their name on the elusive cup, but the 2009-2010 season may yet prove to be their best chance to do so in years.

The Wheat Kings drew their regular season to a close by beating long-standing rivals the Regina Pats while marking their 50th win of the season—only the fourth time the club has done so. Their 50-18-1-3 record ended their spectacular year in which their two standout forwards, hometown hero Matt Calvert and Saskatoon’s Brayden Schenn shared the honour of points-leader with 99 apiece.

The two have more than that in common, as they have both signed their first NHL contracts of late, Calvert with Columbus and Schenn with Los Angeles. As is usual, the terms of both deals have not been disclosed; however with both of their successful showings within the Wheat Kings organization and in training camps, they are likely to have come out fairly successfully in negotiations.

Brandon begins its post-season campaign in a league quarter-final matchup vs. the Swift Current Broncos, opening on home ice March 19th. The seven game series will play at least 2 games in Regina (four if necessary) due to prior engagements in each arena at that time (Royal Manitoba Winter Fair in Brandon and World Women’s Curling Championships in Swift Current). This means that in this matchup, Swift Current will not have a single true ‘home’ game, which the Wheaties will hope to capitalize on. The Wheaties are the favourites, holding the 2nd place position in the Eastern Conference, while the Broncos sit at 7th. In regular season play, Brandon has gone 4-2 vs. the Broncos.