Hitmen in positive frame of mind as WHL playoffs kick off Friday against Wheat Kings

The Calgary Hitmen kick off their WHL playoff series Friday night against Brandon at the Saddledome.

The Calgary Hitmen open up the WHL playoffs Friday night at the Saddledome after completing a surprisingly strong season.

The Hitmen are taking on the Brandon Wheat Kings in the opening round.

It shapes up to be a competitive series, as only three points separated the two teams in the regular season.

The Hitmen finished fourth in the east, while the Wheat Kings finished fifth.

The Wheaties got off to a tough start in the regular season but they were really able to turn things around.

Calgary picked up five out of a possible eight points during the regular season against the Wheat Kings, with the road team winning all four games.

The last time the two clubs met in the playoffs was in 2015, with Brandon winning in five games.

The Hitmen are a young team and weren’t expecting to finish this high in the WHL standings in 2026.

“(Brandon is a) very high skilled team, and very dangerous in transition off the rush,” said Hitmen head coach Dustin Friesen.

“So getting above pucks, tracking their team and also managing pucks through the neutral zone is going to be a big piece.

“They have some high end skilled players,” Friesen said, continuing. “So special teams is always big, (our) penalty kill will have to do a good job and our power play is going to have to be executing as it has in the second half here.”

The Hitmen power play was the second-best in the WHL, scoring on 31.7 per cent of their chances and scoring a league-best 77 times.

The first two games of the series will be played in Calgary Friday night and Sunday, followed by three in Virden, Manitoba because a rodeo is booked into Brandon’s arena.

If necessary, Game 6 and 7 are scheduled for Calgary.

The Hitmen were 20-10-4 at home, while the Wheat Kings went 20-13-1 on the road.

Forward Harrison Lodewyk is excited to find out what the Hitmen can accomplish in the post-season.

“We’re super-confident,” Lodewyk said.

“We feel like we match them really well. We’re going to play them straight up and play defence really hard and capitalize on their mistakes.”

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With files from CTV’s Glenn Campbell