Game 7 . . . postgame

Jay Fehr, the guy who shot the Brandon Wheat Kings into Sunday’s Memorial Cup final, looked like he still was in a state of shock when he met with the media 15 or 20 minutes later.
It was Fehr’s goal at 3:16 of OT that gave the Wheat Kings a 5-4 victory over the Calgary Hitmen in the semifinal game of the 2010 MasterCard Memorial Cup.
He said the Wheat Kings were “upbeat and positive” going into the extra period, even though Calgary had forced the OT with a goal by F Misha Fisenko at 14:48 of the third period.
When the Wheat Kings were getting down to the limit of three 20-year-olds early in the season, it came down to Fehr or F Del Cowan. In the end, Brandon dealt Cowan to the Prince George Cougars who, in turn, sent him to the Hitmen.
Fehr, from Winkler, Man., which is about three hours south-east of Brandon, said he and his mates felt they had a “lot of momentum” and noted that “the crowd was great.”
“We were confident,” he said, “in how we played all night.”
The Wheat Kings had lost five straight games to the Hitmen, four of them in the WHL Eastern Conference final and one here. Calgary posted a 5-1 victory in the last game of the round-robin on Wednesday night.
“We definitely owed them,” Fehr said.
After Wednesday’s 5-1 loss to Calgary, Fehr said, the Wheat Kings “just focussed on playing a simpler game. We had far too many turnovers on Wednesday. We just knew we had to chip pucks and get in on the forecheck.”
The Wheat Kings were away from the game for three weeks after losing to Calgary in the conference final, and it appears to have taken them this long to find some simplicity and some consistency with their game.
“Last Friday,” Fehr said, “we were really off. Other than that, when we’ve played good, we’ve played good, and when we haven’t played good, we’ve been awful. On Wednesday night, we were awful.
“The main thing for us is to keep it simple and chip pucks.”
As for the winning goal, Fehr, who started the play from just inside his own line, recalled:
“I just passed it up to Rajala and he cut across just inside the blue line and dropped it between his legs and I just put it on the net and luckily it went in.
“It felt great. It was a relief.”
Fehr admitted to being “a little bit scared” knowing that, as a 20-year-old, this could have been his last game.
Now, he said, “we get to play another game.”
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Calgary head coach Mike Williamson didn’t feel his club played nearly well enough.
“We were very fortunate to have the lead that we did in the hockey game,” he said of Calgary taking a 2-0 lead in the first period. “(Goaltender Martin Jones) was fantastic for us once again and gave us a chance.
“I’m really proud of what our guys have accomplished and where our team got to this season. I’m disappointed tonight. I thought we had a lot of guys who didn’t play the way we needed to or, for whatever reason, didn’t do what they needed to get done.
“But, with that said, I don’t want to take anything away from Brandon because they obvioiusly were the better hockey team tonight.”
Williamson admitted he was surprised that his guys didn’t come out sharper.
“I am. I am surprised,” he said. “We talked about it a little bit after our first game in here. We have fierce competitors who want to win . . . but I think we seized up a little bit at times tonight.
“It certainly wasn’t a matter of not wanting to work hard and do the right things. We just had a lot of guys standing around and watching a little bit and maybe having a false sense of security with where the score was.”
That was in the first period when the Hitmen, who have had Brandon’s number of late, scored two goals and benefited from some super-human saves from Jones.
“Brandon came on strong and . . . we’ve done a good job on a lot of things all season, our defensive game, the penalty kill . . . and some of those things just weren’t very sharp tonight,” Williamson said.
The Hitmen gave up two PP goals on four chances, while going 0-for-1 themselves.
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Brandon owner/GM/head coach Kelly McCrimmon said he was thrilled for the city and for the local organizing committee.
“For the franchise,” he said, “it’s no more than an opportunity to play in the final, not to sell that opportunity short because, of course, that’s what we’re all here for.
“I’m happy for the city and for the organizing committee because, to me, everything you hear from all the stakeholders of the event is how great it’s been. Obviously, the home team being successful gives energy to those people. It’s no different than any building. When the home team wins, people appreciate it and enjoy it.”
McCrimmon also took time to give credit to a crowd that was really alive.
“Our crowd has been tremendous,” he said. “We’ve had an odd tournament in some respects, because we’ve had two games where our crowd has really played a huge (role) in our victory and we’ve had two games weere we really didn’t give our crowd a chance to get into the game.”
That, he said, was a topic of conversation in his dressing room before the game.
“We talked about getting out of the gate well, having a good start, and giving our crowd a chance to get into the game and help us,” he said. “We were discouraged that we gave up the first two goals but I think our crowd really appreciated how hard their team was playing.
“That’s the one advantage we have as the host . . . and I think that the crowds have been tremendous, not just for games that involve our team but all week with the quality of hockey that has been played.”
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So it’ll be Brandon and the Windsor Spitfires on Sunday. Brandon last appeared in a Memorial Cup final, when it lost to the Peterborough Petes, 2-1 in overtime, in 1979 in Verdun, Que.
The Spitfires are the defending champions, having beaten the Kelowna Rockets 4-1 in last year’s final in Rimouski, Que.