Thunderbirds WHL Championship preview: keys to beating Brandon

After a week-and-a-half-long break, the WHL Championship is mere hours away. The Thunderbirds enter with a chance to win their first WHL title in franchise history, with only the Brandon Wheat Kings standing in their way.

The two teams met this just once during the regular season this year – as they do every year – during what was perhaps Brandon’s toughest stretch. The T-Birds won that contest in late October 7-2 two nights after the Portland Winterhawks had defeated the Wheat Kings 5-0 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

However, if you’re of the mindset that the T-Birds’ early-season victory has them in the driver’s seat heading into the finals, you’re in for a rude awakening. Brandon ended up finishing the season with the best record in the Eastern Conference and has rolled through the first three rounds of the postseason.

In what’s sure to be a competitive series that will see 50 young men lay everything they have on the line for their friends and teammates, here are some things that the T-Birds can do to send them to the Memorial Cup tournament for the first time since 1992, when they were given an automatic berth as hosts:

Don’t be intimidated. Before the season began, just about everyone predicted the Wheat Kings would end up in this position, and anything short of a Memorial Cup appearance would have been considered a disappointment. In fact, even prior to last season, many expected Brandon was preparing for an extended run this year with its level of depth and young talent.

The same can’t be said for Seattle. We expected the T-Birds to be good and win the U.S. Division – which looked like a near impossibility as late as February after a relatively mediocre start – and possibly compete among the West’s elite with the Kelowna Rockets and Victoria Royals. But at no point did it ever feel like a Western Conference Championship was a given.

Both teams have come this far, and it’s likely that no team is underestimating the other. It’s going to be important that Seattle doesn’t go too far towards the other end of the spectrum and give Brandon too much respect. It’s an incredibly talented team with multiple lines riddled with future NHLers, but Seattle has played as well as any team in the entire Canadian Hockey League for the last three months. The T-Birds feature their own elite talent and a plethora of hard-working complementary players, giving them everything they need to pull off a series victory.

Win on special teams. Playing against a team this talented, you can’t get away with losing the special-teams battle. Take too many penalties and you can bet some combination of Nolan Patrick, Jayce Hawryluk, John Quenneville, Tim McGauley, Reid Duke, Ivan Provorov, Macoy Erkamps and Tyler Coulter will make you pay.

Those players are pretty darn good at even strength, too, as is the rest of the roster that allowed the fewest goals and scored the most in the Eastern Conference during the regular season.

The Wheat Kings finished near the middle of the pack in penalty minutes during the regular season and have been shorthanded 58 times in 16 games this postseason, so the T-Birds should get a few power-play chances each game. The T-Birds will need to convert at better than the 15.6 percent clip they’ve amassed so far in the playoffs to keep up with a high-flying Wheat Kings offense.

Play them physically. Seattle isn’t an exceedingly physical team, but it has a few players who can really make the opposition regret holding on to the puck. Jared Hauf, Keegan Kolesar, Josh Uhrich, Nolan Volcan, Turner Ottenbreit and Brandon Schuldhaus should make every effort to (cleanly) throw their weight around against a Brandon team that isn’t particularly big. Patrick, Duncan Campbell and Mitchell Wheaton are the only players over 6 feet 3 on the roster and none of them could be thought of as an enforcer.

Size isn’t everything and the Wheat Kings have their own set of rugged, gritty players, but so far no one has been able to out-muscle Seattle’s big guns. Their hands will be full with multiple Brandon lines that can score, but if they can make their presence felt, it should have a ripple effect down the Brandon bench.

Keep Jordan Papirny busy. On paper, Brandon has the most talented team in the league. Games aren’t won and lost on paper, but having such a deep roster means that if one (or two or three) Wheat Kings are off their game, there are plenty of players who can pick up the slack.

One place that Seattle looks better is in net, where Landon Bow’s numbers over the past couple of months are as good as anyone’s. Only once this postseason has Bow allowed more than three goals in a game – Seattle’s double-overtime victory over Kelowna in Game 4.

Brandon’s Jordan Papirny, on the other hand, has allowed at least four goals on four different occasions this postseason, including seven in Game 3 against Moose Jaw. His 2.89-goals-against-average and .897 goals-against-average aren’t spectacular, and the T-Birds will need to keep him busy over the next couple of weeks to ensure they generate the offense they need to support Bow.

Papirny is a veteran goalie with tons of playoff experience who knows how to win, but he isn’t immune to the occasional bad showing. A tough game or two in this series would go a long way towards a Seattle victory.

Get big contributions from your big names. Depth is always crucial, but in big games against supremely talented teams, you need your own talent to contribute each and every night.

Kolesar, who is from Winnipeg, Manitoba, has always stepped up against the team from his home province. In three career games, he has four goals, two assists, nine penalty minutes and a plus-six rating. In Seattle’s victory over Brandon earlier this year, Kolesar registered one of his two career hat tricks. It seems that the big forward is able to find an extra little something when playing against the Wheat Kings, for whatever reason.

Barzal has played against Brandon twice in his career and registered five assists, all of which came in the blowout victory earlier this year. Barzal has been excellent all season and continued to play well into the postseason, where he leads Seattle in scoring. He’s extremely polished both on and off the ice, and the spotlight has never been too bright for him. A hostile environment in Brandon, television cameras, media infatuation – don’t expect any of it to phase the 18-year-old center. He’ll continue to be double-shifted, perhaps even more than usual, and will likely average over 25 minutes of ice time per game.

Ryan Gropp has faced the Wheaties three times in his career and has three points on two goals and one assist. A laid-back character off the ice, Gropp will be looking to build on the success he’s had so far. One of the fastest skaters on the Seattle bench, Gropp will need to unleash his speed against a Brandon team that likes to keep moving.

Seattle’s final NHL draftee, Ethan Bear, who has been absolutely outstanding during the playoffs, has one goal and three assists in three games against the Wheat Kings in his career. Many eyes will be on the Edmonton Oilers’ fifth-round draft pick, not only from his family who likely will make the trip from Saskatchewan, but from everyone who will be looking for someone on the Seattle blue line to slow down the Brandon attack.

Game 1 starts tonight at 6 PST.