BRANDON, MB–After losing five consecutive post-season games to the Calgary Hitmen, the Wheat Kings turned the tables on a goal from Jay Fehr at 3:16 of the first overtime that gave them a 5-4 victory before a crowd at 5,235 at Westman Place in the semifinal of the 2010 MasterCard Memorial Cup.
For just about the whole game, the Wheat Kings just kept coming in waves. Outworking the Hitmen for all of the loose pucks and just looking like a team that wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Even when they were down 2-0, they had to know that if they just kept playing the way they were playing the goals would come.
“Obviously, we’re really excited. It’s something you play your life for,” said Wheat Kings defenceman Travis Hamonic, who had a goal and three points in the game. “It was nice to do it in the fashion we did it and it was nice we finally did it. They had our number the last couple of games and I couldn’t be more proud of the guys. We showed a little of perseverance throughout the whole game. We were resilient and we just didn’t go away. We made sure we were ready and it showed on the scoreboard.”
Whether it was intentional or not, the game on Wednesday seemed to make Calgary into an overconfident team. You have to wonder what they were thinking on their bench when all of a sudden all of the things they were doing to dominate the Wheat Kings weren’t working any more. Maybe at some point we’ll see a chapter in a psychology textbook based on what we’ve seen in the last three days.
“It’s a tough way to go out,” said Hitmen forward and former Wheat King Del Cowan. “We let them do what they wanted. That’s probably what hurts the most. We gave them a lot of opportunities. This one’s going to sting for awhile, though.”
This will be the third time Brandon has appeared in a Memorial Cup final, and the first in 31 years and Brandon teams have lost all four previous appearances. As they have also lost all their final appearances in the Allan Cup and yes, once, even a Stanley Cup final.
What’s more, the Wheat Kings will be facing the best team in all of Canadian junior hockey this year, the defending champion from last year, a club with no less than 11 players already drafted or signed to NHL contracts and a team that beat Brandon 9-3 in the first game of this tournament en route to an undefeated record.
Game time Sunday night is 6pm CDT and Pro Hockey News will be covering the game live on twitter.
Contact Andruw.Bourgeois@prohockeynews.com
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