Kings swept by Generals

 

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

Doug Taylor Photo

 

Wheatland Kings forward Chris Williams played hero with 16 seconds to go in regulation to tie Game 4 at fours heading into overtime, but with a penalty called against the Kings in overtime, the Cochrane Generals were able to win it 5-4, sweeping the series 4-0 at the Strathmore Family Centre on Feb. 22.
Kings Head Coach Emilio Fuoco said that was the team’s best game they’ve played all season and the Williams goal just seemed to lift everybody on the bench.
“There’s this quiet confidence and then we just took it to the next level,” said Fuoco.
“When it was 3-2 coming into the third period we had this confidence about us that we played and then there was an unfortunate bounce on the fourth goal, kind of set us back a little bit. we just said ‘you know what guys we’ve done this before. It’s our hockey club, we can do it.’”
Fuoco said penalties hurt them all series long because Cochrane had an effective power play, and if the team were to have tightened their belts a little more combined with all the posts they hit, the scores would’ve been much closer.
Blake Bishop, Jacen Bracko and Brendan Moore scored the other goals for the Kings.
Overall, despite the slow start to the season he was pleased with how the season progressed along.
“We started late and we started slow,” said Fuoco.
“We added some nice pieces. I was really pleased with what we had. The last 21 guys we had, I’d take them in a heartbeat again and start over next year.”
Despite the loss of veterans Williams, Bishop and Lucas Jones and others who will try their chances at Junior A next season, Fuoco stated that the club will be good for years to come with the foundation still there to make a great team.
Game 1’s score on Feb. 16 was 7-2 Cochrane, Game 2 was 4-0 on Feb. 19, Game 3 was 9-2 Cochrane on Feb. 20.