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WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

Wheat Kings - Blades Showdown

February 26, 2009 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


Brandon, Manitoba -- A critical 2-game Western Hockey League weekend series between the Wheat Kings and Saskatoon Blades is set to begin Friday night at Westman Place.

The Wheat Kings, who ran their winning streak to five games Wednesday night with a 4-2 victory over the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes, begin the weekend trailing the Eastern Division leading Blades by four points, with two games in hand.

Game two of the weekend series is scheduled for Saturday night. The two teams will then travel back to Saskatoon for a third game on Tuesday night.

Both teams close out the month of February with impressive records. While the Wheat Kings have gone 23-3-2-0 since the Christmas break, the Blades have posted a 20-5-1-1 record during that span.

To be successful this weekend, Wheat Kings' general manager and head coach Kelly McCrimmon says special teams will be a key - the powerplay in particular.

"We have real good personnel that can make plays when plays present themselves," McCrimmon told CKLQ's Bruce Luebke earlier this week. "We're also able to use two units, which a lot of teams have one unit that's clearly better than the other. I think in our case, it's a coin toss on any given night which unit is going to be the most effective."

Brayden Schenn leads Brandon with 30 points on the powerplay while 20-year old veteran Andrew Clark tops the team with ten powerplay tallies.

Brandon is currently ranked third in the WHL with a 24.4% success rate. In fact, over the course of their last twelve games, the Wheat Kings are 22-63 (35%).

Friday will be the sixth meeting of the season between these two teams. Brandon is currently 2-3-0 against the Blades and 1-1-0 at Westman Place.

While Schenn leads all Brandon scorers with seven assists in the first five games of the season series, Chris Langkow has four goals and 7 points to lead all Saskatoon skaters.

Friday's game will also feature a special presentation to all star second Rob Fowler, who helped Jeff Stoughton's rink capture last weekend's Safeway Selects in Selkirk. As well, the first 2,500 fans in attendance will receive a complete set of 2008-09 Wheat Kings' player cards, compliments of Giant Tiger, McDonalds, UCT and Forman Honda.

Tickets to both weekend games are on sale now at the Keystone Centre box office, by calling 726-3555 or online at ticketmaster.ca

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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