WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

Brandon Wheat Kings Game Notes

Published on March 9, 2007 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


3/9/2007: Prince Albert Raiders @ Brandon 19:30, Keystone Centre

GAME NOTES: The WHEAT KINGS will be hoping to complete a 2-game sweep of the visiting PRINCE ALBERT RAIDERS Friday night...BRANDON took the opener 5-1 on Wednesday to reduce its magic number to clinch third place in the Eastern Conference to one point...The WHEAT KINGS, who clinched the Eastern Division pennant last weekend, are currently 39-19-2-8, good for 88 points and a seven point lead on fourth place CALGARY in the Conference - with four games remaining...BRANDON is currently riding a season high 8-game win streak and has collected at least a point in 11 straight games (10-0-0-1)...WHEAT KINGS are 9-0-0-1 in their last ten...they're unbeaten in March (3-0-0), after posting a 9-2-0-1 mark in February...21-9-2-6 against East Division clubs...5-2-8 in Overtime and 4-8 in Shootouts...Entering the second to last weekend of the regular season, BRANDON is 25-4-1-4 on home ice and has moved to within one game (14-15-1-4) of the .500 mark on the road...The WHEAT KINGS travel to SWIFT CURRENT to meet the BRONCOS on Saturday night...BRANDON has qualified for post-season play in fourteen of the past 15 years.

VS. PRINCE ALBERT: This is the eighth and final meeting of the season between these two teams...BRANDON is 4-3-0 vs. PRINCE ALBERT and unbeaten (3-0-0) at the Keystone Centre...During the first seven games of the season series, MARK DERLAGO (7-4-11), DUSTIN KOHN (1-9-10) and DARYL BOYLE (1-8-9) lead BRANDON in scoring...TYLER DITTMER is 3-1-0 with a 2.45 goals against average and a .907 save pct in four appearances...Over the past five seasons, BRANDON is 18-4-3-1 against the RAIDERS in games played at the Keystone Centre.

LAST GAME: The WHEAT KINGS scored the only goal of the first period Wednesday night, added two more in the second and rounded out the scoring with two unanswered third period tallies en route to a 5-1 victory over PRINCE ALBERT...MARK DERLAGO scored his league leading 42nd of the season to pace the WHEAT KINGS, who also got goals from JEFF TOPILKO, TYLER DITTMER, ANDREW CLARK and CODEY BURKI...Netminder TYLER PLANTE turned aside 22 of 23 shots while BRANDON'S powerplay went 2-8...Penalty killing, they were 4-4.

TIPS WINS HANDFUL OF AWARDS: 20-year old veteran JEFF TOPILKO was named the WHEAT KINGS' TIP TOP TAILORS PLAYER OF THE MONTH for February last week, after sharing the team scoring lead in February with 7 goals and 15 points...A former first round bantam draft choice, 'TIPS was also named both the WHL and CHL Player of the Week (for the week ending March 4th) after going 6-2-8 in three games...The 20-year old TOPILKO has points in twelve of his last 13 games (12-11-23) and sixteen of his last 18 (14-14-28)...TOPILKO will be playing in his 277th career game Friday night, good for 11th place on the club's all time list for games played.

OTHER MILESTONES: Captain MARK DERLAGO recently surpassed the 150-point plateau...Defenceman DUSTIN KOHN played the 250th game of his WHL career Wednesday...ST. LOUIS BLUES' draft choice RYAN REAVES played in his 200th career game last Saturday night vs. MOOSE JAW...TYLER PLANTE'S 161 career games and 9,344 minutes played are second only to GLEN HANLON (172/9805) in franchise history. He is the club's all time leader with 12 shutouts and his 2.85 career goals against average is a franchise best...Wednesday's crowd of 5,927 was second largest in franchise history and established a new franchise record for Single Season attendance (138,644), breaking the previous record set in 2002-03.

NUMBERS: Since his acquisition from PORTLAND at January's WHL trade deadline, ROB KLINKHAMMER is 9-18-27 in 24 games and he's 6-15-21 in his last 12 games...MARK DERLAGO has points in seven of his last 9 games (6-8-14) and has 8 goals in his last 11 games...TYLER PLANTE was 6-1-0-1 in February, compiling a 2.96 goals against average in the process while rookie JOE CALIGIURI was 3-1-0 with a .927 save pct and a stellar 2.20 goals against mark...CODEY BURKI has points in six of his last 8 games (5-4-9)...BRANDON'S powerplay is 5th in the WHL (20%), while its penalty killing is currently 13th (82.2%).

DID YOU KNOW? Three members of the Wheat Kings are in the WHL's Top 20 in scoring - CODEY BURKI is 8th, MARK DERLAGO is 11th and ROB KLINKHAMMER is 17th with 76,74 and 70 points respectively...MARK DERLAGO leads the league with 42 goals and is second in the WHL with 21 powerplay tallies...Netminder TYLER PLANTE has moved into the league's top ten with a 2.65 goals against average. He's 3rd in saves (1412)...DUSTIN KOHN leads the club with a +24...ROB KLINKHAMMER has 7 game winning goals this year...BRANDON has won eight straight games on home ice (last loss was to SASKATOON on Feb. 6th)...The WHEAT KINGS will announce the 2006-07 S HOPPERS MALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR during Friday's game, as chosen by western Manitoba hockey fans...Tickets are now on sale for the hockey club's first two playoff home games - March 23rd and 24th - at the Keystone Centre box office...WHEAT KINGS' Awards Banquet will be Sunday, March 18th at the Royal Oak Inn. For tickets call the WHEAT KINGS' office at 726-3535.

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Western Hockey League Stories from March 9, 2007


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