Kings win, give back to the town
By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter
Tyler Lowey Photo
With Santa in the house, the Kings soundly defeated the Three Hills Thrashers 9-1 Dec. 10 at the Strathmore Family Centre, ending their six-game slide.
“It felt good to win and it felt good to do it with a big win,” said Kings alternate captain Brenden Moore. “Guys weren’t so tense afterwards. They were a little more laid back and more relieved.”
It was a win on more than one front, as the Kings held a food and toy drive at the game. Fans were encouraged to bring in a non-perishable food item or an unopened toy for entry into the game.
More than 40 toys were delivered to the Hope Church with 225 pounds of food being sent to the Wheatland County Food Bank.
“We like to get the guys involved in the community as much as possible,” said Kings Assistant Coach Braden Desmet. “It’s a great way to show respect to the community that supports this team. It’s awesome too for everyone to get together for a great cause.”
Giving gifts to the less fortunate is a great feeling, but so is a convincing win where 14 different players reach the score sheet.
Leading the way was Bradley Tingey who recorded four points, scoring a goal in the second and third period.
Moore chipped in with his first two-goal game of his Heritage Junior Hockey League career. Jaks Faris netted the winner from Jaden Doiron 2:49 into the opening frame, while Austin Holmes, Chayse Hnatowich and Garret Vander Ploeg each supplied one goal and one assist. Also in the first period, defenceman Dennis Asham Jr. netted his first of the season from Tingey.
In the weekend opener, Indiana Kelly was bombarded and faced 53 shots against the talented Cochrane Generals (14-8-1).
However, he turned in one of his best statistical outings of the season the next night, stopping 36 shots to earn his ninth win.
The Kings 10th win of the season had to be a relief. As the losses piled up during the streak, the growing season of frustration was becoming apparent with the players inside the locker room.
“There was a little panic with a couple of the guys in the dressing room. We are all trying our best out there, but things weren’t going our way,” said Kelly. “We know we aren’t the team that’s in the spot we were in. We know we are a top-three team in this division, we just weren’t playing like it.”
During that sour stretch, the Kings were stacked up against some of the best talent in the HJHL. The six teams they lost to have combined for a 80-45-10 record with a .630 winning percentage.
The Kings (10-9-2) finally caught a break in the schedule when they hosted the 1-16-0 Thrashers, who own a minus-101 goal differential.
The blowout win came off the heels of another tough loss at home Dec. 9, when the Cochrane Generals downed the Kings 5-2.
The Generals picked apart the Kings, beating them to pucks in the neutral zone, cycling the puck down low and snuffing out any potential threats in their own end.
Leading 3-0 in the second, Kody Hammond sent a point shot wide off the end boards. The puck took an odd bounce and came out to the Kings leading scorer George Montour, who found the rookie Hnatowich out front for his seventh of the season.
After the two points recorded against the Thrashers, Hnatowich sits second in the HJHL for points by a 1999-born player with 23.
The Kings cut the Generals lead in half in the third when Calgarian Ethan Allen scored his first HJHL goal.
Holmes lost the neutral zone face-off, but Allen was there to pursue the puck and poked it away from the defenceman, back to Holmes. The two embarked on a brief two-on-one, when Holmes slid back to Allen for the wrist shot from 10 feet out.
“It feels amazing to finally get that off my back. I’ve had a few chances this season, but couldn’t bury it,” said Allen, who was competing in his eighth game of the season. “I think I’ll keep the puck in my room, maybe put it in a frame one day.”
While the Kings were trying to find a way out of their losing streak, news broke that one of their veterans, Matt Thomson, chose to step away from the team.
Thomson was involved in an incident with an off-ice official Nov. 18 in Red Deer. Following their 7-0 loss to the Vipers, the team suspended Thomson indefinitely while they waited to hear the results of Thomson’s hearing with Hockey Alberta.
The hearing concluded that they couldn’t prove whether Thomson was guilty or not and decided not to suspend him. The Kings welcomed him back, but Thomson has moved on to the Airdrie Techmation Thunder of the Northern Division.
“Tommy put up points for us and was a physical presence on the ice,” said Desmet. “He left our team, we will not look back on it and dwell on it. We will move forward and wish him the best moving forward as well.”
In 83 career games with the Kings, Thomson scored 41 goals, supplied 31 assists and racked up 675 penalty minutes. The Thunder (15-6-2) and the Kings do not play each other in the remainder of the regular season.
The Kings will look to build off their recent winning ways when they hit the road for a pair of games this weekend. On Dec. 15, they will be in High River to take on the Flyers (12-9-3) at the Bob Snodgrass Recreation Complex and will head down to Medicine Hat the following day to take on the Cubs at Kinplex Arena. The next Kings home game goes Dec. 23 when they host the Cubs (8-13-0).