The Brandon Wheat Kings are hoping they can duplicate what happened in the 2015-16 season when they won the WHL title against the Seattle Thunderbirds.
That season the Wheaties got off to an 8-3 start. This year the Wheat Kings are off to an 8-4-3-2 start and are third place in the East Division. The team's 21 points are just one behind the second place Saskatoon Blades.
Of course, the Prince Albert Raiders are off to a special start and lead the Wheaties by nine points for the first spot in the division.
"Well, I think we got off to a good start to the year, and we found a way to get quite a few points off the start," said David Anning, Head Coach.
Through the first 10 games of the season, the Wheaties were 6-1-2-1. The team then embarked on their first extended road trip of the season. That saw the team play seven games starting in Lethbridge on October 23 and the trip wrapped up with a game on November 3 in Kelowna.
The team ended up going 2-3-1-1 on the seven-game trip.
"I thought our team took a big step as far as our team play and how we play," said Anning. "We were in every game and I think we deserved better then what we got. Overall, we're happy with how we played and performed. Now we're on a homestand here where we're going to have to get some wins."
This season the Wheaties have been for the most part a disciplined club. But, when they've got into penalty trouble, it has usually hurt the squad. No more so than the game against Kelowna.
The team had five penalties in that game and Kelowna scored three times and won the game 4-3. Only four other teams in the WHL have fewer penalty minutes this season than the Wheat Kings.
"Some things happened late in the game in Kelowna that wasn't in our favour and we don't necessarily agree with," said Anning. "I think overall our discipline has been good this year. We've definitely made a strong effort to stay out of the box and that's really important. When going down the stretch, staying out of the box is crucial if we want to have success."
Giving up three goals against Kelowna when they were on the PP isn't the only time the Wheat Kings have struggled this season while a man down. They're 21st in the league (second last) with a 67.1% penalty killing percentage. The only team lower is the Regina Pats and that's only by .8%.
"Our penalty kill needs to do a much better job than we have, and we've been trying out some different personnel," added Anning. "It's something we're going to continue to focus on and it needs to be better if we want to have success down the road."
The club has scored 60 goals this season and have given up 54.
"We've had some games where we've scored a lot of goals and some not," said Anning. "I think overall our offence has been okay. We definitely need some more depth scoring so we can get some more points from our second, third, and fourth lines. Stelio Mattheos has done a fantastic job scoring on basically a game to game basis, and really our whole first line has been producing."
The team's upcoming schedule is a favourable one. Brandon will play nine of their next 11 games at Westoba Place. Brandon has been solid on home ice this year with a 4-1-1-1 record.
"Getting back home is definitely nice for us, we pride ourselves on being good on home ice," said Anning. "Our guys are always ready to play, we have great fan support, and great energy. We'll be ready for Friday night."
That's when the Wheat Kings kick-off their six-game homestand against the Red Deer Rebels.
