Belusko, Wheaties prepare for Blades

The Brandon Wheat Kings are as close to healthy as they’ve been all season as they face Saskatoon Blades in a vitally important Western Hockey League game at Westoba Place tonight at 7 o’clock.

Both Jaxon Jacobson and Ben Binder Nord fully participated in practice after returning from injuries. As well, callups Isaac Davies and Cam Allard and practice goalie Micky Gross of the Southwest Cougars were among 23 players on the ice Tuesday.

The only players who didn’t take part were injured forward Easton Odut (upper body, indefinite), defenceman Merrek Arpin (upper body, week-to-week) and team captain Quinn Mantei, who was attending to a family matter and was expected back in Brandon Tuesday night.

Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Marty Murray said the busy and competitive practice was nice to see.

“It’s a good problem to have,” Murray said. “We’re pretty close to healthy, certainly as healthy as we’ve been in a long time. It’s good to get full bodies back, but just because you get a full lineup back and can almost access everybody, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee you’re going to be at the top of your game. It’s up to us to prepare as individuals and be ready to go as a team.”

Second-place Brandon (36-22-4-3) and fifth-place Saskatoon (36-22-3-4) both have 79 points and three games remaining as they battle for the East Division crown and the second seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Brandon holds the higher spot because of the league’s tie-breaking procedures.

If teams, have the same number of points, the first tie-breaker is total victories. If that’s the same, as it is in this case, the next tie-breaker is total number of points earned in head-to-head matchups, which Brandon leads.

If the teams are still somehow tied, the next tie-breaker is highest ratio when taking goals for and subtracting goals against in regular season play. Incredibly, there are two more tiebreakers involving most goals scored in the regular season and most goals scored against each other, so a dead heat is exceedingly unlikely.

Brandon finishes up against the Regina Pats on the weekend while Saskatoon meets their fierce territorial rival, the sixth-place Prince Albert Raiders (36-23-5-1), who are a point back with three games remaining in the East Division race.

“I think it will be a playoff-type atmosphere,” Murray said. “It’s two good teams going at it that have strung some wins together. It will be a battle.”

Happily for Murray, the lineup shortage created by defenceman Adam Belusko’s absence has worked itself out.

The 18-year-old defenceman from Kosice, Slovakia was away from the club for a week and half to deal with academic requirements back home, which he wasn’t allowed to deal with online.

“It was the first part of graduation in Slovakia,” Belusko said after practice on Tuesday. “It’s mandatory, with the same date for everybody my age in Slovakia. It was four exams, Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It’s something I had to do if I wanted to graduate.”

The first exam dealt with sports. He had to pretend to be a coach setting up training sessions in the gym for players, and teachers graded him on his efforts.

Monday’s exam dealt with the economics of sport, with Belusko pretending to manage a team that was going on a road trip.

“I had to find the best hotel and insurance for everybody, food, how much it would cost,” Belusko said. “I had to choose the best option.”

The final exams were on the Slovak and English languages. He was able to study for the exams before he went home.

He left March 5 and returned March 13.

“It was too bad because he was playing some pretty good hockey for us when he left,” Murray said. “It’s something that’s out of everybody’s control with the schooling. He had to go back for exams, otherwise I don’t think he could have graduated.

“It’s one of those unfortunate things. I think he put time in and skated once or twice when he was gone and kept his conditioning up. He was right back into the fire on Saturday. I thought he kept it pretty simple and was pretty solid for us.”

Belusko watched two of the Wheat Kings games, the loss to the Red Deer Rebels on March 4 before he left, and the March 5 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings when he was on the plane.

“The other games I didn’t watch because it was like 3 a.m., in Slovakia,” Belusko said. “I had to get up in the morning and do my stuff. Because I had a little bit of jet lag, I just caught up with the scores.”

He worked out when he could but didn’t get much time on the ice because the airline lost his luggage and his skates didn’t arrive until Tuesday. He did get out once on Wednesday before flying home on Thursday.

“It is what it is,” Belusko said with a chuckle.

At least there was one big upside for him. He certainly hadn’t anticipated a trip home so quickly.

“I expected it to be maybe in the summer time or close to the summer around June,” Belusko said. “It was perfect to see the family and everybody.”

Belusko missed six games in total. He arrived back in Brandon on Thursday around midnight but sat out Friday’s game in Brandon against the Moose Jaw Warriors. He returned to action the next day as the Wheat Kings rallied for a 5-4 overtime victory over the Warriors.

“In warmup I wasn’t nervous, but I felt different,” Belusko said. “I need to get back to sharp, where I was before I left. This is my main goal because I think I can help the team a lot.”

He’ll need to be sharp because the season series with Saskatoon has been a good one, and the stakes are massive.

Saskatoon had won both games at Westoba Place this season in overtime, with a 4-3 victory on Oct. 25 and a 3-2 win on Feb. 7, prior to the Wheat Kings earning a 5-2 decision in Brandon last Wednesday.

In Saskatoon, the Blades won 4-3 on Sept. 28, and the Wheat Kings subsequently earned a 4-2 decision on Dec. 15, a 6-2 victory on Jan. 3 and a 6-3 win on Feb. 17.

Belusko certainly understands what’s at stake.

“This is kind of the final for our division,” Belusko said. “There’s only one option for us. We have to win, and that’s what everyone will focus on. Just win.”

ICINGS: The Wheat Kings will hand out their annual awards on Friday when the Pats visit. Brandon then heads to Regina on Saturday to close out the season. Both games begin at 7 p.m. CDT.

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