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Brandon Wheat Kings slightly favoured over Calgary Hitmen: WHL Eastern Conference final preview

Nolan Patrick and the Wheat Kings take on the Hitmen in Round 3. (Brandon Wheat Kings)
Nolan Patrick and the Wheat Kings take on the Hitmen in Round 3. (Brandon Wheat Kings)

The Eastern Conference’s two best teams in the regular-season haven’t skipped a beat in the playoffs. The Brandon Wheat Kings only lost two games in their series against the Edmonton Oil Kings and Regina Pats while the Calgary Hitmen dropped four contests against the Kootenay Ice and Medicine Hat Tigers.

Brandon hosts Games 1 and 2 on Friday and Saturday. Here is a preview of the Eastern Conference final.

(1) Brandon Wheat Kings (53-11-4-4, 114 pts) vs. (2) Calgary Hitmen (45-22-1-4, 95 pts)

Season series: Wheaties 3-1-0-0. Final Dynamic Dozen rankings: Wheaties 4th, Hitmen 7th. Post-trade deadline rankings: Wheaties 24-2-1-2, Hitmen 22-7-0-1. Prediction: Wheaties in 6.

Series in a sentence: Calgary stands in the way of Brandon’s banner season.

Even though five of Brandon’s eight playoff wins have been one-goal games, they haven’t really been tested yet. The Oil Kings and Pats simply didn’t have the star power to knock them off. Moreover, there wasn’t a point in either series where they had their backs up against the wall.

Calgary, meanwhile, faced two big tests in Kootenay and Medicine Hat. They went up against two of the league’s top offensive duos in the Ice’s Sam Reinhart and Jaedon Descheanau and the Tigers’ Cole Sanford and Trevor Cox. They allowed Reinhart and Descheneau to score 11 goals combined, but held Sanford and Cox to a single marker.

Albeit Brandon has the slight edge in talent, both of the Eastern Conference’s top teams are stacked in flashy skill. They combine for 12 NHL draft picks, including four first-rounders (Vancouver Canucks' Jake Virtanen, Philadelphia Flyers' Travis Sanheim, Calgary Flames' Morgan Klimchuk and New Jersey Devils' John Quenneville), two of the league's top blueliners (Sanheim and Ivan Provorov) and three elite 16-year-old rookies (Nolan Patrick, Kale Clauge and Jake Bean).

Here are some questions to ponder about the series.

Who has the edge in net? The safe answer is Jordan Papirny. He outperformed Pittsburgh Penguins second-rounder Tristan Jarry in Round 1 and stood tall against the Pats in his second series for a 1.98 average and .938 save percentage. He has clearly elevated his game from his regular-season play.

Mack Shields wasn’t even Calgary’s starter for their first game of the playoffs as Brendan Burke got the nod, but he showed against Medicine Hat that he probably should have been given the net from the get-go. The Saskatoon, Sask., native only allowed 12 goals by him and posted a save percentage of .940 or better in four of the five matches. In addition, his best effort came in a 4-3 loss in Game 2 when he pulled off a 47-save effort.

Will Adam Tambellini slow down? The 6-foot-3, 191-pound overage has been on fire in the second season. He’s nearly sitting at a two-points-per-game ratio with nine markers and 21 points in 11 games, including two overtime winners. The icing on the cake of his superb playoff is how he outscored Reinhart in Round 1.

Up against blueliners like Provorov and Ryan Pilon plus a deep offense, it goes without saying that the New York Rangers prospect is about to face his greatest test of the year. But despite his tough opponents, the fire in Tambellini’s eyes suggest he’s not slowing down anytime soon.

What kind of impact will Morgan Klimchuk make? The 19-year-old winger returned to Brandon’s lineup for Game 5 of their series against Regina after missing six games with an undisclosed injury. He made his presence known in the third period when he set up Patrick's game-tying goal.

That said, Klimchuk could become an X-factor for the Wheaties. If he’s healthy enough to go full tilt, he could push his club over the edge to ensure a trip to WHL finals. If he struggles to stay healthy, however, Brandon could feel the effects of not having one of their top players firing on all cylinders.

Who will lead Brandon’s offense? Unlike Tambellini in Calgary, Brandon hasn’t had one of their forwards separate himself from the rest of the pack. Peter Quenneville (4G-6A), Jayce Hawryluk (5G-4A), Tim McGauley (4G-5A), John Quenneville (4G-5A) and Patrick (4G-4A) have led the way as a five some.

Having their offensive production spread out throughout their lineup is obviously a good thing, but the Wheat Kings might need a player or two to step up in close games, especially with Klimchuk coming off an injury.

How big of a factor will overtime play? Both teams have flourished in extra time thus far in the post-season. Calgary took four of their five games that went to overtime while Brandon won all three of their matches that went beyond 60 minutes.

It seems inevitable that at least one contest will go into extra time when considering how tightly matched these two clubs are in terms of skill level. Having veterans step up in overtime, like Tambellini did for Calgary in Round 1, could be the difference in this series.

Kelly Friesen is a Buzzing the Net columnist for Yahoo! Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KellyFriesen