Rockets require one win for Memorial Cup return

BRANDON, Manitoba – One win is all that separates the Kelowna Rockets from their third straight trip to the Memorial Cup.

But Rockets head coach Jeff Truitt believes it will take his club’s best effort of the series to finish off the Brandon Wheat Kings in Game 5 of the WHL championship today.

“It is going to be difficult, there’s no doubt,” said Truitt, whose club held a short practice Thursday morning. “Both teams are going to have to play desperate, them to extend the series and us to close things out. So it’s going to be a real tough battle, there’s no doubt. It seems like a bounce or a chance here or there is going to be the difference.

“We’re excited, obviously, with the challenge, but we know that’s exactly what it’s going to be is a challenge.”

The Rockets pushed the Wheat Kings to the brink of elimination on Lauris Darzins’ goal 12:08 into overtime in Game 4 on Wednesday night for a 2-1 victory and a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.

While the Rockets are one of the best defensive teams in the league and have managed to slow down the Wheat Kings’ high-powered offence with a tight-checking style that teeters on the edge of obstruction, Truitt said his club wants to set the offensive pace.

“We can’t lay back because if you lay back against this team, you’re asking for trouble,” said Truitt. “We have to initiate and we have to make sure that we’re jumping on pucks and that we win the battles because that’s what it is going to come down to again.”

The Wheat Kings have been in this situation before, but it doesn’t make the task any easier. After battling back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Calgary Hitmen in the conference semifinals, the Wheat Kings believe they can complete the comeback against the Rockets.

“We understand that it’s a much-win situation for us and we’ve obviously been in this situation before, so we know what to do,” said Wheat Kings star Eric Fehr, the WHL’s regular-season and playoff scoring leader. “We definitely know we’ve got the personnel to get this done. We’ve got a lot of character in our room and I think if there is any team out there that is capable of coming back from a deficit like this, it’s ours.”

The Wheat Kings know they need to start capitalizing on their offensive opportunities, after scoring just four goals in four games in this series. A little power-play production wouldn’t hurt, with Brandon 0 for 16 in the series after leading the league during the regular season.

“We’ve just got to concentrate on playing our best game and try to put pucks through to the net and get traffic in front and try to generate some offence,” said Brandon blueliner Stephane Lenoski.

Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Kelly McCrimmon said his team knows what it’s facing, and is prepared for the task.

“As we’ve found in the playoffs, you’ve got to win four games and it doesn’t matter which four,” said McCrimmon.