Bears bash Kings in playoff opener

Tyler Lowey
Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore Wheatland Kings came out and laid an ostrich-sized egg in Tuesday night’s Game 1 of the Heritage Junior Hockey League playoffs.
After finishing the regular season 16-18-4 with 36 points, the fourth-place Kings earned the right to host the Banff Academy Bears (11-22-5) in the best-of-three Southern division quarterfinals.
These two teams met at the same spot last year, but it was the Bears who finished atop the Kings in the standings. Despite opening on the road, the Kings won the opener 7-5 in Banff and celebrated the clinching win on home ice in a 4-3.
Home ice wasn’t nearly as friendly as the Kings were hoping for. The Bears dominated the first period, putting three goals in a span of five minutes past Brady Hoover, en route to a 6-1 win over the Kings
“You can say you’re ready and say your mentally prepared, but when you put in that kind of effort, it shows you aren’t ready,” said Kings head coach Shadoe Stoodley. “Maybe because we had a good record against them in the regular season, they thought it was going to be a cake walk and we thought we were going to come away with an easy win, but we came out flat footed, our dee zone was atrocious, our goaltending was weak, nobody helped anyone out there.”
Hoover had been sidelined with a lower-body injury he sustained Jan. 6 during a 6-3 loss to the Cochrane Generals. He returned for the regular season finale against the Coaldale Copperheads after missing nine games. He played 51 minutes, making 36 saves on 45 shots and told the coaching staff that he felt fine after the game. The Kings coaching staff did not comment in regards to their Game 2 goaltender following the game.
Following Nathan Cohen-Wallis’ marker at the 9:27 mark, Hoover was relieved of his duties after making five saves for Indiana Kelly.
“A couple weird bounces were the death of me tonight,” said Hoover. “It’s kind of hard to recreate the game settings and the playoff pressure; it just wasn’t my night tonight.”
Whatever the message was during the intermission, it was definitely loud, and probably clear. The Kings came out in the second and there was more of an effort not only directing more pucks at net, but more bodies as well. The only problem was, nothing went in.
The Kings were playing drastically short handed. Alternate captain was serving his second game of a three-game suspension for fighting, Matt Thomson was serving his one game suspension after picking up a pair of 10-minute game misconducts in the regular season finale, defensemen Hayden Vanderploeg was away studying, both George Montour and Christian Halman were nursing lower body injuries and Nolan Lightning was unable to attend the game. Filling in were affiliated players Cort Armstrong and Will Kathol, who were both playing in their first game with the club.
“We need a full roster and the guys who are out, are a huge part of our game,” said Stoodley. “Especially with a guy like Thomson, who plays physical and would have opened up the ice for some of our other guys.”
If there was any positives to take away from Game 1, it was that Laval Jerry scored his first goal of the season, breaking the shutout on the power play in the third when a rebound kicked right out to him.
Other than that, time might be the best remedy for this Kings team. With four days off, Stoodley is giving his team some much-needed rest and hopefully can see a couple more bodies return to the rink.
There is no room for error, especially in the best-of-three series. The Kings have their backs stapled against the wall now, and will need to win out to keep their season afloat.
It’s a scenario the Bears were in last year and their coach of 23 years, Billy Doherty, is leaning on experience and trust moving forward.
“We just focus on us,” said Doherty. “We will bring our best effort to the table, focus on execution and being disciplined.”
This is a Bears team with great turnover. Their roster consists of 17 rookies and only six players returning from that playoff series with the Kings last season.
This season, the Kings went 3-1 against the Bears. To the Bears credit, they played their best hockey down the stretch of the season, going 4-3-2 in January (1-2 against the Kings) to sneak into the final playoff spot.
The two sides first met back in September, when the Kings dusted the Bears 7-3 in Banff. They didn’t faceoff again until January, where they played three times. The Bears buzzed the Kings 4-3 in a shootout victory Jan. 10 here in town. The Kings picked up two more wins, playing in a home-and-home series at the end of the month. First, the Kings crushed the Bears 10-4 in Banff before sliding past the Bears two days later 4-3 in overtime.
The Cochrane Generals (33-4-1) finished atop the Southern division for the second straight season, 14 points ahead of the Okotoks Bisons (26-11-1). The Mountainview Colts won the Northern division after going 29-6-3 this year.
The Coaldale Copperheads (24-12-2) host the Medicine Hat Cubs (8-24-6) in the other Southern division quarterfinal. In the North, the two matchups feature the Red Deer Vipers (25-12-1) taking on the Ponoka Stampeders, and the Blackfalds Wranglers (25-12-1) hosting the Stettler Lightning (18-17-3).
Game 2 is set for Feb. 11 in Banff. Should the Kings regroup and pull out a win, Game 3 returns to the Strathmore Family Centre Feb. 12 if necessary.