Thursday, August 12, 2021 brandonsun.com REPORT GAME RESULTS BEFORE 9 P.M. PHONE 204.571.7442 FAX 204.727.0385 Sports EMAIL [email protected] TRY TO BEAT THAT!: THE 1978-79 Wheat Kings rally to make fi nal

BY PERRY BERGSON just lost our heads and we didn’t then we got back in. It was a play the way we should have little different because we used Just four days after the 1978- played. But that’s what hap- (Bart Hunter) a lot instead of 79 Brandon Wheat Kings beat pens. We had a brawl and we Knickle. We tried to play as well the Portland Winter Hawks thought we had them scared as could.” in Game 6 to win the Western and they weren’t. They were at GREGG DRINNAN: “I always Hockey League champion- home.” felt badly for Rick and Scotty ship, they were preparing to TIM LOCKRIDGE: “I think we Olson too with the way things face off against the host Trois- all kind of let our guard down a turned out at the Memorial Rivières Draveurs in the Memo- little bit now that we were there. Cup. I felt badly for Dunc too rial Cup. Maybe we were thinking we because of the decision he had From 1972 until 1983, and were better than we really were to make to go to Bart Hunter af- again for one year in 1987, the because I know we went into ter you ride those guys for 101 , On- the game with Trois-Rivières games.” tario Hockey League and the thinking there was no way these WES COULSON: “Dunc didn’t Quebec Major Junior Hockey guys were going to beat us. They come in and yell and scream. League each sent their champi- came out and tried to intimi- Yes, he would once in a while, on to a three-team event. Each date us.” but that caught me off guard champ played the others twice, RICK KNICKLE: “I had a puck when Hunter did that. Literally, with the top two clubs advanc- thrown at me during the game. I think’s that what we needed. ing to the fi nal. A guy came down the aisle and Were we feeling a bit sorry for GREGG DRINNAN (Brandon threw a puck at me when the ourselves because we lost the Sun): “You don’t realize it at play was in the other end. I saw fi rst two games? I don’t think so the time because you’re travel- him and he missed me, but now but maybe we had it our own ling with them and one game Brandon’s carries the puck against the . there’s two pucks on the ice. My way for quite a while and now bleeds into the next. When you (Brandon Sun fi le photos) mom and dad are at the game all of a sudden we have some look at it afterwards and think and they’re getting abused and adversity and we have to show what you’re putting 20-year- the game. Some of them are surrounded by people in the that we can overcome that.” olds through without a whole 60 minutes of high stress, and stands during the brawl. It was BRANT KIESSIG: “Scotty Ol- lot of time for their bodies to some aren’t, but most of them pretty scary at times.” son never got to play because rejuvenate and regenerate, a lot are. When you get into a six- all of a sudden Dunc didn’t have of hotel food and a lot of times game series against a team like GAME 2 confi dence in him, and the in those days it was stop at A&W Portland, it’s high stress, it’s The Wheat Kings picked a team sees that and is going ‘OK, and bring the box of burgers on travel, it’s hard on your body. spectacularly bad time to em- there is something wrong here.’ the bus on the way home.” In those days, you didn’t have bark on their fi rst losing streak The machinery is wonky. And RICK KNICKLE: “You don’t nutritionists and all that kind of of the season when they fell in even though Bart Hunter came really think about it while you’re stuff, the electronic resources to overtime 7-6 to the Petes on in and played unbelievable, we doing it. It’s after the fact. You’re help your muscles and for the May 8. Suddenly the team that still had things going on in front young and you’re playing and most part you’re riding the bus. had lost fi ve times during a of him that weren’t normal for what does it mean, but when By the time they got to Quebec, 72-game regular season found us. I don’t know if Brad Mc- I see the guys who were there, they were really running on themselves one defeat away Crimmon even came off the ice and being on the team with Brad fumes.” from elimination. in the third period of that fi nal and all those guys, and what I RICK KNICKLE: “When we game.” had gone through with them GAME 1 lost our fi rst two games, Brad GREGG DRINNAN: “They that year and the year before, it The signs are there that it was (McCrimmon) said ‘Listen, we had gone through over 100 was pretty amazing. At the time, diminished Wheat Kings squad have come so far, we can’t lose games with the laid-back Rick you’re so mentally drained … It by the time they arrived in Que- another game.’ He put it as an- Knickle and the smiling Scotty was a tough grind, and we had bec. other one of those roadblocks. Olson, neither one of whom one more grind to get through They lost two games in a row That whole year, nothing was would say s— if their mouths at the Memorial Cup.” for the fi rst time all season, and going to stop us. If you want to were full of it, and neither of KELLY McCRIMMON: “Our were outshot in four of the fi ve try to beat us up, that’s not go- whom was close to being a vo- travel and our playoffs and the games at the Memorial Cup. To ing to happen. We had so many cal leader on that team. All of a amount Brad played … we did put the latter stat into context, weapons and so many things. sudden you’ve got Bart Hunter the round-robin with Leth- in 94 regular season and playoff For my part, I just tried to not in the mix who has a sharp bridge and Portland and then games, they were outshot just be the weak link.” tongue, is quick to speak, he’s a league fi nal with Portland. 12 times. DAVE McDONALD: “Ev- fi ery and emotionally he’s all You don’t think of it at the time In the fi rst game, a 4-1 loss erybody looks at it a different that stuff. He came in and re- when you’re playing, you’re a to Trois-Rivières on May 6, the way. We lost the fi rst game 4-1 ally, really played well. Without young guy, but when you look teams brawled during the pre- to Trois-Rivières and then the him, and with the other two at it in hindsight it’s hard to game skate. While the Wheat next one to Peterborough, 7-6. and especially with Rick in a fathom that we could travel that Kings may have thought they We could have been a little out slump, Bart really came in and much in the WHL playoffs.” had the hosts exactly where of sorts. You’re not used to los- saved their butts. It’s pretty hard GREGG DRINNAN: “When they wanted them, it didn’t ing is one thing. It’s the same for to be critical of his selection as the season starts, the teams work out that way. each team, except maybe the MVP, because without his per- know who has a chance to win STEPHEN PATRICK: “We host team.” formance, especially in his fi rst the championship and who don’t know a player on the other RICK KNICKLE: “For me it two games, they aren’t in the fi - doesn’t. At the start of the sea- team, we don’t know their stats, was bittersweet because I was nal. It had to be a shock in the son, the teams that have a we don’t know their records, drained. I had nothing left, and dressing room.” chance put so much into getting we don’t know who their scor- nothing left when I got down to TIM LOCKRIDGE: “Every- to that championship that when ers are, who the penalty killers the Memorial Cup. I played OK body accepted him. He came in they win it, they have noth- or the tough guys are, nothing. the fi rst game, the second game (and was vocal) and I think ev- ing left. It’s so hard for them to You’re going into a French town I was awful and I didn’t play the erybody respected that. It was a make a turn-around to get from with French fans and you don’t rest.” little different because we didn’t that high to get back up again know anything. It was tough, DAVE STEWART: “Knick had get that out of Rick or Scott. and play in a Memorial Cup. I and it was tough for the 2016 a couple of bad games but I They were just there as the goal- really think that’s a big part of team. You win a tough series don’t know why we didn’t stick ie, where all of a sudden Bart why the WHL has had limited and then you have to reset. with him. He probably played came in and he was vocal and success of late in the Memorial It’s really important to get out well.” chirping a little bit about this Cup, because it’s so hard to win quick, and we didn’t get out KELLY McCRIMMON: “I and that. I think it helped us in a WHL championship primarily quick.” didn’t think we played poorly some sense but it was defi nitely because of the travel. Assum- DAVE STEWART: “Trois- but suddenly we were down a different personality from the ing that the two teams who get Rivières was a small rink.” 0-2, and Peterborough and other two guys.” to the championship are rela- DON GILLEN: “The (Memo- Trois-Riviéres really appeared DON GILLEN: “(Bart) was the tively equal, by the time they rial Cup) crowd was very loud, to be in the driver’s seat. We had kind of guy who would come get there, they are so tired that even in warmup. That game the banquet during the week into a dressing room he had they have nothing left. You win was up in Trois-Rivières. I don’t Portland Winter Hawks goalie Bart Hunter, who the Brandon and we were 0-2. I remember never been in before and within and you’re sky high, and you know why they got a home Wheat Kings picked up for the Memorial Cup, started their fi nal (Trois-Riviéres coach) Michel fi ve minutes call a meeting. He’s wake up the next day and you’re game, in hindsight, but there three games and added a fi ery presence in the locker room. Bergeron waving bye-bye to us that kind of guy. With the way drained, and at some point real- was much more atmosphere when he was leaving. We were he was and the dad he had, he ity sets in, it’s ‘Holy man, I have there than the host in Verdun.” ing trouble adjusting to this there were no referees — and all done, we weren’t going to make could parachute into a situation to get pumped again and go to DAVE McDONALD: “I re- new wrinkle.” of a sudden they lined up to do it to the fi nal and everything and it would not be foreign to the Memorial Cup.’ I think a lot member that fi rst game against LAURIE BOSCHMAN: “The their line rushes and Ray skated else, and then we eliminated him. He could just pick it up. He of times — they are teenagers — Trois-Rivières. That was wild. It fi rst game in Trois-Rivières, to centre ice and bowling balled them.” was really the perfect callup.” and they just can’t get back up was a good experience. We were Michel Bergeron, Le Tigre, who about three guys. It was messed BART HUNTER WES COULSON: “We lost the there again.” in Montreal and you had to take eventually coached the Quebec up within seconds and we were In the third game, Bart Hunter fi rst two games and were not RICK KNICKLE: “It’s crazy the subway to the Verdun rink. Nordiques, was the coach. I re- beating every guy so bad. I was named starter, supplanting playing very well. We came to that you have to go through As a team, you have to bond to- member when we got there, in played with four of those guys the two goalies who had carried our third game in Verdun and what we went through in our gether … Everyone wanted to the pre-game warmup, we had in Rochester three years later the mail for the fi rst 101 games. we were playing Trois-Rivières league and then have to go do good. We practised hard and a pre-game brawl and I remem- and I asked them ‘What was it The fi ery son of the legendary and he was the goaltender that down to the Memorial Cup.” got up for every game.” ber looking up and seeing all like in the dressing room for you Wild Bill Hunter, who founded Dunc chose to go with. I can re- LAURIE BOSCHMAN: “I do DAVE CHARTIER: “Ray Alli- the dark jerseys on top of the guys after the brawl?’ ‘Ah, it was the WHL and co-owned and member him standing up in the recall being quite fatigued but son and somebody got tangled white ones, so we just pound- like a MASH unit.’” coached the Edmonton Oilers, room and literally coming un- it was just something you never up with each other and that’s ed these guys. Unbeknownst KELLY McCRIMMON: “They Hunter quickly made his im- glued on us, telling us ‘What the talked about.” when the brawl started I think. to some of us, our parents had introduced us fi rst, so we all pact felt. hell are we doing here? This isn’t BRANT KIESSIG: “When we I was fi ghting this one guy and I made the trip out and they got stood on our blue-line, and then DAVE McDONALD: “They the team that I played against got to the Memorial Cup, even was hitting him and he was talk- just doused with beer from the they introduced them next. I re- ended up putting Hunter in and in the fi nal, you guys are a hun- our senior guys like Propp, Alli- ing and I said to him in French home fans in Trois-Rivières.” member this guy named Danny he played really well.” dred times better than what son, Brad and Lockridge, this is to shut his mouth because I KELLY McCRIMMON: “It was St. Laurent, he wore No. 27 I be- DAVE CHARTIER: “We said you’re playing.’ He just went off new for them too.” knew how to speak French. We unprecedented, even in that lieve, he came out and skated ‘We’re in a big hole here, all we and that was kind of a turning GREGG DRINNAN: “I think were tough kids so we did what era, what happened.” right down the blue-line and have to do is what we do best. point for us. It was kind of ‘Holy they were starting to run out of we did and beat the crap out of RICK KNICKLE: “A guy stuck challenged our guys (laughs).” We have to start something here s—, this guy is right, we aren’t gas. There’s a lot of travel, not them.” me as we were coming out for RICK KNICKLE: “We thought now.’ In the third game we beat playing very well. I feel sorry just in the playoffs but in the BRANT KIESSIG: “We got warmups and everybody saw it. we had them, and that’s why we (Trois-Rivières) pretty good.” for Trois-Rivières because after regular season on, but when into that big frickin’ brawl with We went ‘Oh, they think they’re lost the game. They played so BRIAN PROPP: “We wanted that we went out and just beat you get into the playoffs, almost Trois-Rivières in the fi rst game tough at home, do they? OK, fast, we couldn’t hit anybody, to be there and to be in the fi - the s— out of them. We literally every game is a high-stress situ- … We were like the Russian in good.’ So we met them at centre they started about three fi ghts nal. I remember we lost the ran them out of the building.” ation, certainly at the start of the Rocky movie. We were hav- ice and nothing happened — and we got frustrated and we fi rst game to Trois-Rivières and » See ‘Stage’ –– Page B3