Game On Magazine 2017 Game On Magazine - Regular Season Edition | Page 32

looking for from a school,”
said Brakel, who hopes to
choose a major in the sciences.
Although signing with
Cornell was special, Brakel
acknowledged that it also
felt a little bittersweet.
This, in all likelihood, will be
his final season as a member
of the Terriers, who chose
him in the first round of the
2013 MJHL Bantam Draft
and with whom he has spent
the past three seasons. He
won back-to-back Turnbull
Cups with Portage the past
two seasons and saying
goodbye to the team and
town that have played such
a big role in his development
isn’t going to be easy.
“Everything in Portage is
focused on winning. The staff
is really good, and they have
one of the best arenas in the
league and the fans are just
amazing. From Day 1 it has
been nothing but good things
in Portage,” Brakel said.
“The goal for any player is
“
HE’S AN INTELLIGENT
GUY AND HE’S ONE OF
THOSE GUYS THAT WHEN
HE TALKS EVERYBODY
LISTENS TO HIM
you want to advance to the
next level. (But) to not be
there for my 20th year it’s
kind of tough that way.”
While Portage has been
good for Brakel, he’s also
been pretty good for Portage.
As a rookie in 2015-16, he
finished fifth on the team in
scoring with 50 points (27
goals, 23 assists) in 60 games.
His 80 points last season
ranked him second overall
in scoring in the MJHL. And
despite a somewhat slow
start to 2017-18, he was still
second on the Terriers with
41 points after 35 games.
It’s no coincidence that he
took his game to another level
3 2 | G AME ON | R EGU L A R SEASON ED ITION 2018
”
after being paired with Leipsic
early last season. The duo has
been inseparable ever since.
“We have some really
good chemistry together and
the points have just come
naturally,” Brakel said. “We
just kind of complement
each other. He’s a really good
playmaker. Any time I’m
open I know he’ll get me the
puck and vice versa. We’ve
just kind of gelled. Once you
play with someone for so
long you know where they’ll
be and what you have to
do to get them the puck.”
Brakel hasn’t only been
leading the way for the
Terriers on the ice. He
was named captain prior to
the start of the season, a
move the team’s head coach
called a “no-brainer.”
“He’s a guy who’s not a
real big talker or a loud,
boisterous guy,” Spiller said.
“But he’s an intelligent guy
and he’s one of those guys that
when he does talk everybody
listens to him. He leads by
example. He’s definitely
the leader of our team.”
Even though Brakel didn’t
start off the year as fast as he
would have liked, that hasn’t
slowed the second-place
Terriers. Only two teams have
scored more than Portage.
“This year we’re scoring lots
of goals as a team but they’re
more distributed,” Brakel said.
“We have a deep lineup this year
and the goals have been really
spread around which is a good
thing. If teams shut down one
line, we can still count on two
or three other lines to score.”
All of that scoring could
go a long way in determining
whether or not the Terriers win
a fourth-straight Turnbull Cup.
And while there is still a lot of
hockey left to be played this
season, there is nothing Brakel
would like more than to win
another MJHL championship
to close out his junior career.
“Oh yeah, for sure,” he said.
“Last year we dropped a lot of
games in the first half that we
shouldn’t have. In the second
half we really turned it around.
I think the players have brought
that experience into this year…
and we’re more focused and
that’s really helped us a lot.” ❍