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WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

April 24 Preview: Raiders vs Wheat Kings 7 PM

April 24, 2021 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


The Brandon Wheat Kings (16-3-2-0) take on the Prince Albert Raiders (8-10-2-1) this evening at 7 PM in the first of back-to-back games this weekend for the Wheaties. They've won five straight and with three games left to play this season, the Wheat Kings lead the East division with 34 points and a game in hand over the second place Winnipeg ICE, who picked up their 33rd point against the Saskatoon Blades last night.

The Wheat Kings are 2-1 against the Raiders so far this season, losing their first matchup 5-3 back on March 16th in just their third game of the 2020-21 season. With the race for the East Division banner down to the Wheat Kings, Blades and ICE, the fourth-place Raiders are looking to play spoiler in their final games of the season. They recently knocked off the Blades 4-0 and have a shot at getting wins against the Wheat Kings and ICE before finishing their season against the last place Swift Current Broncos on April 28th.

McCartney on the Scoresheet

WHL Player of the Week, Ben McCartney has stayed hot down the final stretch of the season. He's only been held off the scoresheet twice this season, and collected a single assist in the Wheat Kings' last game which was his first single-point outing in five games. McCartney has had multiple points in nine of his 21 games played so far this season. For perspective, last season he scored multiple points in 14 of 61 games played. The Macdonald, Manitoba native leads the Wheat Kings in scoring with 12G-20A-32 points and ranks third in the league, just one point back from the ICE's Connor McClennon. McCartney will look to finish the season strong alongside forwards Ridly Greig and Jake Chiasson, who have recently skated on the Wheat Kings' top line. Greig is second in team scoring with 9G-18A-27 points in 18 games.

Power between the Pipes

Ethan Kruger has started the last three games in net for the Wheat Kings, picking up his 11th win of the season letting in just one goal on 18 shots against the Broncos. Between Kruger (11-2-1) and Connor Ungar (5-1-1) who earned his last win against the Winnipeg ICE on April 14th, the Wheat Kings have one of the strongest netminding duos in the league. Kruger has the most wins of any goalie in the East Division hub and his 2.28 GAA ranks fourth in the WHL among goalies who have played 10 or more games.

Previous Meetings this Season

After dropping their first meeting against the Raiders this season, the Wheat Kings have won their last two games against the Raiders in much different fashion. In their 7-1 win at the end of March, the Wheat Kings saw a depleted Raiders lineup that was missing San Jose Sharks prospect and Raiders' leading scorer Ozzy Weisblatt, as well as forward Evan Herman. The Wheat Kings jumped out to an early lead and gave up their only goal of the game midway through the third period.

In their last meeting, the Wheat Kings won on a shorthanded goal from Ridly Greig who turned in a memorable penalty kill that will be remembered for quite some time by Wheat Kings fans. After blocking two slapshots from overager Justin Nachbaur, on the next shift and still on the penalty kill, Greig was was sprung on an odd-man rush where he made no mistake scoring the game winner past Max Paddock.

The Wheat Kings have outscored the Raiders 13 - 8 so far this season and a healthy rivalry still exists between the two teams. The Raiders have had the upper hand for the past 5 seasons going 12-6-3-0 against the Wheat Kings since 2016.

April 5, 2021 - Raiders 2 @ 3 Wheat Kings

March 30, 2021 - Raiders 1 vs 7 Wheat Kings

March 16, 2021 - Raiders 5 @ 3 Wheat Kings

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Western Hockey League Stories from April 24, 2021


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