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WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

Wheat Kings To Open Against Raiders

September 18, 2009 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


Prince Albert, Sask -- The Brandon Wheat Kings arrived in Prince Albert Thursday night in preparation for the kick-off to the 2009-10 Western Hockey League season Friday night against the Raiders.

For the first time in fifteen years, the Wheat Kings will be bringing the curtain up on the regular season with back to back road games. In 1994-95, Brandon swept a 2-game series in Red Deer. Brandon will close out the weekend Saturday night against the Pats in Regina.

The Wheat Kings will then return home to meet the Swift Current Broncos in their 2009 Home Opener, scheduled for Friday, September 25th at Westman Place.

The Wheat Kings, who went 3-1-0 in four pre-season games, enter the season with twelve rookies on their current roster. Among them - Finnish right-winger Toni Rajala and Swedish defenceman Alexander Urbom, who were chosen 14th and 23rd overall by the Wheat Kings in this summer's Canadian Hockey League Import Draft. While Rajala continues to recover from an off-season knee injury in Edmonton, Urbom continues to skate with the National Hockey League's New Jersey Devils.

Other notable rookies include Klarc Wilson, Jordan DePape and Brenden Walker. While Wilson was Brandon's first pick in the 2008 WHL Bantam Draft, DePape and Walker finished 1-2 in scoring among rookies in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in 2008-09.

A brother to former Raider Ryan DePape, Jordan led the Wheat Kings in pre-season scoring this year with two goals and 7 points, followed by Jesse Hall (5-1-6) and defenceman Darren Bestland (1-5-6). 19-year old goalkeeper Andrew Hayes meanwhile posted a 3.33 goals against average and a .919 save percentage in exhibition play.

Brandon enters the season with six players still away at NHL camps. In addition to the two imports, the Wheat Kings will be without Brayden Schenn (Los Angeles), Scott Glennie (Dallas), Matt Calvert (Columbus) and Colby Robak (Florida) this weekend. In fact, the Wheat Kings will be missing 12 players from last year's club when they hit the ice Friday.

Tonight's game can be heard on 880 CKLQ, with the new 30-minute pre-game show beginning at 7:30 p.m. CST with Bruce Luebke.

Tickets to Friday's Home Opener are on sale today at the Keystone Centre box office (located in the Pioneer Lounge due to ongoing renovations), by phone at 726-3555 or online at www.ticketmaster.ca Doors will open at 6:30 and fans are encouraged to come early - for both the Tailgate Party, presented by Montana's Cookhouse, in support of the CIBC Run for the Cure Campaign as well as the unveiling of the brand new Video Scoreboard, scheduled for 7:20 p.m.

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