WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

Wheaties Hit The Road For Three

Published on March 4, 2008 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


Brandon, Manitoba -- The Brandon Wheat Kings will be putting a 3-game winning streak on the line Tuesday night when they kick off a 3-game Saskatchewan road trip in Moose Jaw against the Warriors.

The Wheat Kings are coming off a successful 6-game home stand that saw them score five victories including back to back wins this past weekend against the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Calgary Hitmen.

The two week stretch has pulled the Wheat Kings to within four points of the Eastern Division leading Regina Pats, with two games in hand. Unfortunately for Brandon, Moose Jaw and Swift Current continues to win as well. In fact, entering tonight's game at the Civic Centre, only five points separate the four playoff bound teams in the Eastern Division.

While Regina sits on top with a record of 40-21-4-2, the Wheat Kings are 39-22-2-2, good for 82 points and sixth place in the Conference. The Warriors and Broncos meanwhile are next with 81 points each.

With the club enjoying so much success on home ice recently (8-1-1-0 in their last ten games at Westman Communications Group Place), you can bet that that the Wheat Kings will be going their best over the course of the final two weeks of regular season play to nail down home ice advantage in the opening round of post-season play.

With seven games remaining, the Wheat Kings find themselves two points away from the fourth place Kootenay Ice in the Eastern Conference. If the season was to end today, the Hitmen, Pats, Lethbridge Hurricanes and Ice would have home ice advantage in round one.

A total of five players including 19-year old center Andrew Clark averaged a point per game during the club's recent home stand. While Clark led the team in scoirng with two goals and eight points, 16-year old rookie Scott Glennie was next with two goals and 7 points. Three others - Brayden Schenn, Matt Calvert and Jay Fehr - had six points each.

Meanwhile veteran goalkeeper Joe Caligiuri has been solid between the pipes in recent weeks. In fact, the 18-year old Winnipeg product has compiled a 1.39 goals against average, a .953 save percentage and two shutouts in backstopping Brandon to four wins over the course of his last five starts.

The Wheat Kings, who continue this road trip with games on Wednesday and Friday nights in Swift Current and Saskatoon respectively, will be without Chad Erb (wrist) and Tyler Dittmer (broken finger) this week. However, left-winger Daniel Bartek, who has missed the last three games with a knee problem, is listed as day to day.

Brandon's next home game is Saturday night against the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings. Tickets to the game are on sale now at the Keystone Centre box office, by calling 726-3555 or online at ticketmaster.ca

Speaking of tickets, the Wheat Kings would again like to remind their Season Ticket holders that the deadline to reserve their 10-game playoff package is this Friday, March 7th at 5 p.m.

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Western Hockey League Stories from March 4, 2008


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