WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

Wheaties set to battle Raiders

Published on March 17, 2004 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


Brandon, Manitoba -- The Wheat Kings and Raiders kick off their best of seven Western Hockey League Eastern Conference quarterfinal series Thursday night in Prince Albert.

Winners of six of ten meetings between the two teams during the regular season, the Raiders are making their first playoff appearance in four years after finishing second in the Eastern Division with a record of 38-23-6-5.

The Wheat Kings meanwhile finished third with a 28-32-9-3 mark. However, Brandon enters the post-season as one of the WHL's hottest clubs, having won six consecutive games to close out the regular season. During those six games, the Wheat Kings outscored the opposition 31-7. In fact, all star netminder Josh Harding recorded three of his club record five shutouts during the final week of the campaign.

Despite the Raiders' second place finish, it's the Wheat Kings that have a definite advantage when it comes to playoff experience. Brandon's players have 324 games of playoff experience while the Raiders have 91. The Wheat Kings' active playoff leaders entering the series include Lance Monych and captain Tim Konsorada (42), Monych (12 goals), Konsorada (24 assists, 32 points) and Ryan Stone (59 penalty minutes).

The Raiders' playoff leaders include Matt Girling (27 games, 5 goals) and ex-Wheat King defenceman Travis Young (6 assists, 9 points). Raider goalkeeper Rejean Beauchemin, who is coming off a solid season, will be making his post-season debut in the series while Brandon's Harding has eleven playoff games under his belt - as a member of the Regina Pats.

This will be the fourth playoff series meeting between these two clubs but the first since the 1995-96 campaign when all stars Wade Redden, Peter Schaefer and Mike Leclerc led the Wheat Kings to a 4-2 series win over Prince Albert in the Eastern Conference Championship Final. Brandon went on to beat Spokane in the WHL Championship to advance to the Memorial Cup. Brandon has won two of the three series and nine of 17 playoff games between the two clubs.

During the regular season, Tyler Dyck (7-4-11) and Eric Fehr (4-6-10) led Brandon in scoring while Harding posted a 2.50 goals against average in four appearances against Prince Albert.

Fehr is one of two 50-goal scorers facing off in this opening round. While Fehr became the first Wheat King to reach the 50-goal plateau in eight years, Prince Albert boasts Seth Leonard, who finished the year with 50 goals and 90 points, good for seventh place in the league scoring race. Fehr was next with 84 points.

The Raiders enter the series relatively healthy while Brandon has two players on the sidelines. 17-year old Teegan Moore (ribs) and Richard Jasovsky (neck strain) are questionable for games one and two. However, 19-year old defenceman Andre Blanchette has been given the green light to play and could be in the lineup on Thursday.

Game two of the series will be Friday night at the Communiplex, before the series shifts to Brandon's Keystone Centre for games three and four on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

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

Should a sixth game be necessary, it would be played on Monday, March 29th at the Winnipeg Arena due to a scheduling conflict with the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair.

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Western Hockey League Stories from March 17, 2004


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