WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

Wheaties power play erupts in game four

Published on March 30, 2007 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


Prince Albert, Saskatchewan -- It took four games but the Brandon Wheat Kings may have finally solved Prince Albert netminder Jesse Deckert.

Brilliant during the first three games of the best of seven Western Hockey League Eastern Conference quarterfinal series, Deckert was victimized for 7 goals including four in the second period as the Wheat Kings built up a 5-0 lead en route to a convincing 7-3 victory over the hometown Raiders in front of a sold out crowd of 2,492 fans at the Art Hauser Centre.

With the victory, the Wheat Kings grabbed a commanding 3-1 lead in thier opening round playoff series with the Raiders and can clinch a berth in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals with a victory on Saturday night. Due to the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair, this series is a 2-3-2 affair, meaning a loss by the Wheat Kings on Saturday night would mean that the series would shift back to the Keystone Centre for game six on Tuesday night and game seven on Wednesday - if necessary.

A 20-year old undrafted free agent from Winnipeg, Deckert had stopped 123-130 during the first three games of the series but in game four, the Wheat Kings - who finished the 2006-07 regular season as the third highest scoring team in the WHL - scored once on 14 first period shots, scored four times on 15 shots in the second period before firing two more past him in the third period of play when he was called on to face six shots.

In all, Brandon was outshot 37-36 as Wheat Kings' netminder Tyler Plante turned in his second consecutive solid performance between the pipes.

"It was a much different game in terms os where our chances were coming from," Brandon coach and general manager Kelly McCrimmon told CKLQ's Bruce Luebke during Thursday night's post-game show. "I thought Wednesday night, even tough we had 40 shots on goal, I thought it was an easy game for Jesse Deckert in that he had the ability to see the puck...we never had screens, we never had second shots and I thought in tonight's game, right from the very first opportunities we had, we had people in front of Deckert creating screens and we had scoring chances because of it."

In addition to solving Deckert, Brandon's powerplay came to life in game four, scoring four times. Two of them came off the stick of 20-year old captain Mark Derlago, giving him four goals in the series and 50 on the season. A 4-year WHL veteran, the Brandon product led the WHL with 46 goals during the regular season.

Former Portland Winter Hawk left-winger Rob Klinkhammer scored twice and set up another for the Wheat Kings, who led 1-0 and 5-1 at the period breaks. The two goals were the first of Klinkhammer's WHL playoff career.

Singles came off the sticks of defenceman Daryl Boyle, Juraj Simek and 17-year old rookie Jay Fehr. All star blueliner Dustin Kohn added three assists while centers Codey Burki and Tyler Dittmer added two each.

Ryan DePape, Matt Robertson and Ryan McDonald replied in a losing cause for the Raiders, who could be without defenceman Mike Gauthier this weekend after he was given a 5-minute major for running Plante in the second period. Not only did Brandon score twice with the man advantage, Gauthier's action will be reviewed by the league office and he could face further discipline.

Fans can listen to game five of the series on Saturday night by tuning into 880 CKLQ, beginning with the pre-game show, at 8:15 p.m.

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Western Hockey League Stories from March 30, 2007


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