Kings lose valiant battle against top-ranked Thunder
By Brady Grove, Times Reporter
Brady Grove Photo
“The better team didn’t win tonight that’s for sure and we definitely out-played them all over the ice,” said Strathmore Wheatland Kings head coach Joel Robinson. “I was saying to the boys in there you need the bounces to win games and tonight we didn’t get the bounces.”
Both teams set the tone early in the first period. Every inch of ice was fought for. They weren’t head hunting or trying to kill each other but both sides gave up very little space to one another and limited the other team’s ability to break out.
Sometimes it was a little hook on the arm, other times it was an opposition player blocking another’s path. The combined sharp goaltending from the Kings Brett Willan and Thunder’s Jackson Little ended the first period in a 0-0 tie with the Kings leading in the shot department 11-10.
The Kings started the second period on the penalty kill and managed to kill it off but the Thunder scored a minute later on a one-timer in the slot that beat Willan five-hole. Emotions started to come out in a penalty-laden second and the Kings had their chance to tie up the game on the power play, but the Thunder countered and caught a two-on-one break the other way which Thunder forward Brayden Dunn sniped for a shorthanded marker. The Thunder overcontrolled the play in the second and only allowed the Kings five shots.
The third period was a shooting gallery for the Kings for fired pucks from every angle in an attempt to break the goose egg and get on the board. Kings forward Isaac Benoit had a great chance from the top of the circle early in the third and then Kings forward Kody Hammond tried from the same spot, but Little was able to stop both of them. Kings third-leading scorer Garret Vander Ploeg rang one off the crossbar with just under nine minutes to go as the Kings just couldn’t manage to score.
Despite the Kings outplaying the Thunder in the first 10 minutes of the third the Thunder caught another break. Thunder forward Tyler Petrie buried a wrister past Willan on a rush to give his team a 3-0 lead.
“It was the same message in the first and second intermissions. Just keep doing what we are doing. We are doing the small things right, we’re working hard, we’re skating, shooting pucks while we can and we are getting in front of the net,” said Robinson. “If we get more traffic in front of Little, the game will be different.”
Little could only weather the Kings onslaught for so long when Kings defenseman Chase Clayton fired a low wrist shot on net. Benoit was perfectly placed to deflect the puck down and through Little’s pads. The goal breathed life into the Kings who never gave up, including a goal by forward Cole Busslinger with 44 seconds left to make it a one goal game.
Despite a pulled goalie and the extra man on the ice the Kings would come up short and the Thunder would add an empty netter. The Thunder edged the Kings in shots 35-33.
“We got that team to beat … tonight we held them to two goals and last weekend it was a one-goal game, so I think the effort was there,” said Robinson.
It was the second time the Thunder had beaten the Kings in a close game in the last two weekends.
“They played us tough both times,” said Thunder head coach Derek Stamp. “They really brought it in the third period, played with a lot of speed and a lot of grit and made it close.”
The Kings beat the High River Flyers 7-6 in a shootout on Dec. 7 to get two much-needed points in the standings and snapping a four-game losing streak. The forward line of Benoit, Vander Ploeg and Lucas Muenchrath led the way for the Kings, scoring a combined 11 points. Kings defenseman Bailey Filkohazy was the hero in the shootout and was the only player to score. Kings goalie Riley Stovka made 32 saves for the win.
“It was one of those games when you couldn’t seem to get a two-goal lead,” said Robinson. “We’d go up by one, then they’d tie it up, we’d go up, then they would tie it up again.”
The Kings currently have a record of 12-11-2 with only two games left before the Christmas break sets in. Both are home games at the Strathmore Family Centre with the first against the Cochrane Generals on Dec 11 at 8:15 p.m. (result not available as of press time) and the second against the Lomond Lakers Dec. 15 at 8 p.m.