Battle of the WHL’s titans

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This article was published 07/05/2015 (4166 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — In the words of arena-rock masters Kiss, “You wanted the best, you got the best.”

The top two teams in the Western Hockey League’s regular season, the Brandon Wheat Kings and Kelowna Rockets, have also been the best in the playoffs, rolling through the first three rounds with identical 12-3 records and setting up a titanic matchup for the Ed Chynoweth Cup final, which begins on Friday night at 7:30 at Westman Place.

“They’re the best team we played all year, so it’s going to be a really good matchup,” said Brandon goaltender Jordan Papirny, whose team posted a league-best 53-11-4-4 regular-season record for 114 points, two more than the Rockets (53-13-5-1).

“The two best teams are in the final, so that makes it a little more competitive. Obviously you want to fight for that (honour of being the) top team in the Western Hockey League.”

Matchups of this calibre are rare. The last time the teams that finished 1-2 overall in the regular season met in the final was in 2003 when the Rockets beat the Red Deer Rebels. The combined 226 points Brandon and Kelowna racked up this season are more than any other pair of finalists except 1979 when the Wheat Kings (with a league-record 125 points) topped the Portland Winterhawks (111) for the WHL title.

The clubs only played once during the regular season –Ça 6-1 Kelowna victory on Oct. 25 — but they’ve been keeping an eye on each other most of the season, which has made them more familiar rivals than might be expected.

“We had hoped to get to the league final. That was one of the goals that our team had,” said Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Kelly McCrimmon, who was named the WHL’s executive of the year on Wednesday. “I think there was an expectation if we got four rounds that likely Kelowna would be the team we’d be facing. We only play one time… but we chased each other down the stretch in terms of trying to finish first overall, so I think because of that you have a little more awareness, you’ve followed them a little more closely than what you might otherwise.”

Kelowna and Brandon were also 1-2 in the league in goal differential during the regular season, with the Rockets outscoring their opponents by 122 goals (305 four, a league-low 183 against), while the Wheat Kings were plus-121 (340 for, 219 against).

The Rockets are better offensively and defensively than any team the Wheat Kings have faced to this point, and Brandon captain Peter Quenneville said they’ll push his team to keep focused at all times.

“I think we need to really bring a strong work ethic and really bring focus and understand that you can’t really afford to have those mental lapses that maybe we had a few times along the way,” said Quenneville, who has seven goals and nine assists in 15 post-season games.

No player in this series has won a WHLàtitle before, but Quenneville has a United States Hockey League championship to his credit.

“We’re just excited,” he said. “It seems like it’s kind of flown by, the playoffs, but at the same time it’s already been almost two months, so we’re excited to be at the point we’re at and really looking forward to Friday.”

ONE-TIMERS: The Wheat Kings and Rockets have met only once in the playoffs, in 2005 when Kelowna won in five games in Brandon’s last trip to the final… Kelowna has won the WHL title three times (2009, 2005, 2003), while Brandon has two (1996, 1979)àto its credit … The Wheat Kings will bring in fan entertainer Cameron Hughes for Games 1 and 2.

 

— Brandon Sun