Blues red-hot as MJHL playoffs approach

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This article was published 26/02/2019 (2130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Six weeks ago, the Winnipeg Blues were five points out of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s eighth and final playoff spot. The post-season looked like a pipe dream.

Oh, how times have changed.

The Blues, currently the MJHL’s hottest team with 10 wins in 11 games this month, could catch the fifth-place Virden Oil Capitals with a successful finishing kick over the final three games of the regular season.

Sixth-place Winnipeg is currently two points behind the Oil Caps with one game in hand.

This stunning reversal of fortune can be directly connected to a pair of trade-deadline deals in mid-January in which Blues head coach and general manager Billy Keane acquired 19-year-old defenceman Darren Gisti and forwards James Maxwell and Tony Apetagon from the OCN Blizzard.

At about the same time, the Blues got a bonus when 17-year-old blue-liner Michael Ladyman returned to the MJHL after an extended stay with the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs.

OCN, well out of the playoff hunt after Christmas, became a seller at the deadline. Keane and the club’s ownership group of Tom Kleysen and Dave Morris, who are getting an all-star calibre season from overage goaltender Jeremy Link, decided to bet on their team.

Kleysen and Morris, longtime stewards of the club, have a letter of intent to sell the club to 50 Below Sports & Entertainment and are still negotiating the final agreement, but are eager to finish with a championship run.

Apetagon, a 20-year-old from Norway House, has helped to ignite a once-dormant Blues offence with nine goals and 20 points in 15 games and he now has 69 points, including 27 goals, in 56 games to sit third in league scoring.

Winnipeg has outscored its opponents 54-22 in February.

“Before they got here, we struggled to score goals,” Link said Wednesday afternoon. “Getting them definitely helps, because we were losing one-goal games, 2-1 or 3-2. For example, we beat Swan (Valley) the other night 5-3. I feel like before we had them, we’d be losing that game. It took a while… to get chemistry, but our whole team is clicking together pretty well.”

If MJHL rivals aren’t worried about the Blues, they should be.

“I think we’re capable of making a run for the championship,” said Apetagon, a left-winger currently playing on a line with centre Brayden Foreman and Ty Naaykens. “We have a lot of depth and we’ve been playing a lot of good hockey lately.”

Apetagon, who didn’t play at the AAA level until his second year of midget, said he hasn’t played on a championship team but he’s developed an appetite for that kind of success.

“The way I see it, (the hard times) build character, it makes you more hungry,” said Apetagon, who is planning to play U Sports hockey at the University of Manitoba in the fall. “If we keep playing the way we’re playing, I think we’ll make a long run for it. We’re playing good hockey at the right time and teams see that and I guess we’re the talk of the league right now.”

Winnipeg’s improved offence is a big part of the story, but the 5-9 Link, who was sent home by the Neepawa Natives midway through the 2016-17 season, has helped to make it all possible with a stellar overage season. His 25-15-2 record, 2.38 goals-against average, four shutouts and a league-leading .933 save percentage were good enough to earn MJHL goaltender of the year and first-team all-star honours last week.

Initially, the Natives were unwilling or unable to make a trade for Link, who didn’t have a team to play for until the start of 2017-18.

“I talked to Billy and the deal was if I could come to camp and make the team, they would trade for me,” Link said. “There was a week or two where I wasn’t able to come to Blues camp, so I was kinda panicking.”

Ultimately, the Natives released Link and he made 49 appearances for the Blues in 2017-18, posting a 3.10 goals-against average and .908 save percentage. Although his size isn’t prototypical for a university goaltender, Link is exploring his options for next season.

“He was always active. He’s scrappy, he’s athletic and competitive,” said Keane, who has watched Link play for many years and credits Blues goaltending coach Sonny Mignacca for helping him fine-tune his game. “Nothing’s changed from my perspective.”

Mignacca, who starred in the WHL as a 5-8 goaltender in the early 1990s, has an insider’s knowledge on succeeding in a big man’s game.

“They can see eye to eye on a lot of things, no pun intended,” Keane said.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14