Kings tie series at two

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Wheatland Kings tied up their best-of-seven series at two with a convincing 4-1 in Game 4 over the Coaldale Copperheads on Feb. 24 at the Strathmore Family Centre.
After an opening 5-2 loss on Feb. 18 in Coaldale, the Kings sent a packed Strathmore Family Centre home happy in Game 2 on Feb. 20 with a 4-2 win, before dropping a 5-2 game 3 in Coaldale the next night.
Assistant coach Joel Robinson admits that the Copperheads got some lucky breaks in the first game.
“You look at Wednesday night’s game and we were trying to be individuals and do it all ourselves, trying to be the guy. (In Game 2) it just seemed like we wanted to play as a team, we wanted to get the W,” said Robinson. “I think the biggest thing for us is the continued desire to want to win. Matt Thomson said it perfectly, ‘we’re the underdog’ and we like being in that state because we work hard and it drives us to work harder.”
Matt Thomson and Brayden Beckley scored in the defeat.
He felt that the effort was not quite there in the first game but improved immensely in the second one.
“When we go up against a team like Coaldale, we want to be outworking them. For the first game it was lacklustre and the second game it became way better, it was team effort, everyone is flying,” said Robinson.
Beckley, Thomson, Captain Kirby Ruzesky, Sebastian Turgeon scored in the win.
It was a different story in Game 3, as the Kings frustration seemed to boil over in every aspect of the game.
“We kind of went back to our old ways, not playing a solid 60 minutes of hockey,” he said. “We played 40 minutes of hockey and in third period we broke down on each other or on the refs.”
Ruzesky and Keenan Ogle scored in the loss.
In Game 4, head coach Jeremy Blumes was pleased to see his team play such a high-energy game and executing on special teams.
“I thought our special teams was excellent, the penalty kill was tenacious (and) kept our shifts to 30 seconds. We kept our power play simple and cashed in on a couple by putting pucks on the net and crashing,” said Blumes. “When it comes down to it, it’s a pretty simple game, it’s just hard to play, and we’re figuring out how to play the right way.”
He could not have stressed enough how important tying the series was for his team’s confidence.
“We talked about this game as a must win, now it’s a best-of-three,” said Blumes. “It’s a quick turnaround, we have to carry that momentum into the next game and stick with the game plan.”
Calvin Gordon, Justin Kostiuk, Brett Dumaine and Kirby Ruzesky scored in the win.
Game 5 was played in Coaldale on Feb. 25 (results unavailable as of press time), while Game 6 will be played on Feb. 27 at the Strathmore Family Centre (8:30 p.m.).