Wheat Kings continue dominant u18 AAA season
The U18 AAA Brandon Wheat Kings have punched their ticket to the 2024 Telus Cup.
And they did so in dramatic fashion.
After going a sensational 43-0-1 in the regular season, the Wheat Kings swept each of their postseason opponents, improving their record to 52-0-1 through regular season and the league championship final.
Advancing to the West Regional against the host Winnipeg Wild and the area representatives from northwestern Ontario and Saskatchewan, the Wheat Kings went on to post a 3-1-0 record in the tournament, dropping their first game of the season 5-3 to Thunder Bay, before responding with a 1-0 shutout victory over Saskatoon.
The game was actually decided in overtime, with the winner earning a berth in the U18 AAA national championship at the end of the month.
As has been the case for the duration of the eye-popping 2023-24 season, Brandon came through when it mattered most, securing the overtime victory on a Brady Turko game-winner just 2:21 into the extra frame, bringing the Hockey For All Center into mass jubilation.
With the win, the Wheat Kings have actually become the first Manitoba-based team to win the West Regionals since the 2011 Winnipeg Thrashers - a team loaded with talent including that of Winnipeg's Riley Kuryk and Rory Court - both of whom turn 30 this year.
Brandon will look to repeat its performance from exactly 20 years ago, when the 2004 U18 Wheat Kings beat Quebec in overtime in the national championship following its West Regional victory. That team boasted the likes of former NHL stud Ryan White, among others.
With the Telus Cup national championship set to be played from April 22-28 in Membertou, Nova Scotia, the Wheat Kings will regroup and maintain their day-to-day schedules before heading off to the east coast to represent Canada-West in the final stretch of hockey of the 2023-24 season.
The Wheat Kings will face the Quebec league champions, as well as three other regional winners (Pacific (B.C. and Alberta), Central (GNML, MHAO, GTHL, OMHA, HEO) and Atlantic (N.S., N.L., N.B., P.E.I.)).
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