Kings rolling hot into playoffs

By Brady Grove, Times Reporter

The Strathmore Wheatland Kings head into the playoffs on a high note after capturing two victories to end the season on a three-game winning streak.
The Kings played back-to-back home games and beat the Cochrane Generals 6-1 on Feb. 8 and the Lomond Lakers 8-3 on Feb. 9.
“It was a good last two games to finish off the year and go into the playoffs with a little momentum,” said Kings assistant coach Chris Williams. “It’s good we’re finding the back of the net. It almost feels like we’re starting to heat up at the right time.”
Despite being heavily outshot by the Generals in the first game, the Kings buried them with goals. Scoring came from throughout the lineup and Brett Willan was a wall that turned aside 40 shots for the win. The Kings were well disciplined and only took four minutes in penalties during the game.
The offense continued into the next game against the Lakers. The Kings found themselves up quickly with a 3-0 lead after the first. The Kings didn’t let up and kept attacking in the second and scored three more goals. Despite the constant attack by the Kings, a couple of giveaways led to partial breakaways that the Lakers converted.
Two goals by star winger Garret Vander Ploeg in the third ended all thoughts of a comeback. Kings forwards Lucas Muenchrath along with Isaac Benoit and Vander Ploeg combined for 16 points in the win.
“That top line certainly has figured it out,” said Williams. “It was just their night.”
Willan wasn’t nearly as busy against the Lakers and only had to make 20 saves to get his team the win. The Kings maintained their discipline and only took four penalty minutes again.
The Kings regular season is now complete, and they finished in fourth place in the south division with a 18-17-3 record. According to Williams, the goal was to finish with 20 wins but the team was happy to get 18 and end up over .500.

Round 1
The fourth-place Kings edged out the fifth-place Medicine Hat Cubs by one point to take home ice in the first round of the playoffs, a club they have had some success against in some spirited games. The season series ended at two games apiece with the Kings winning back-to-back games on Oct .27 and 28 and then dropping back-to-back games on Jan. 26 and 27.
The best-of-three series will be played by two clubs that are very evenly matched with the season series scoring sitting at 14 goals each. Both teams have their offensive stars, strong goaltending, aren’t afraid to get physical and have timely depth scoring. The first game will be crucial in such a short series.
“Our mindset needs to be on winning that first game and putting their backs against the wall,” said Williams. “No team wants to be in that position of being down a game.”
The first round is a sprint, with the first game happening on Feb. 12 (8:15 p.m.) at the Strathmore Family Centre and the Game 2 on Feb. 14 in Medicine Hat.
The third and final game, if necessary, is on Feb. 16 at (8 p.m.) in Strathmore. See next week’s issue