Kings season-opening win streak broken

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Agra Risk Wheatland Kings four-game winning streak to open the new regular season was broken, Oct. 5, at the Strathmore Family Centre.

The local Junior-B team fell 5-4 to the Cochrane Generals in a back-and-forth contest.

Down 4-2 at the end of the second period, the Kings claimed two back-to-back goals in the middle of the third. Immediately following, the Generals answered with their fifth goal to seal the game. 

“Nobody likes losing, so I think the boys are a little bit upset. We did not really play good in the first period and got behind,” said Doug Raycroft, head coach of the Wheatland Kings. “We really battled back – we made it close, we had a couple bad breaks, but whenever you do not play 60 minutes, it is hard to win against good teams. Cochrane is a good team.”

Raycroft added the Kings line broke down with a defenseman falling on the ice, leaving two Generals to break away with the puck and taking the opportunity for a shot to retake control of the game. 

He emphasized that fifth goal was not at the fault of any one player in particular and it is simply what happens sometimes in hockey. 

As the Kings prepare for their next set of games, Raycroft said a big part of being ready is in a player’s and a team’s mentality. 

“(We need to be) ready for the game mentally, and we did not start very well and a lot of that is just being prepared … we need to make sure we are not making those little defensive errors where we are being too aggressive or we are not moving the puck good enough and we are giving them opportunities,” he said. “To work on and improve, we need to stick together as a team and not worry about all the little things that are going on during a game. If we can be a little bit better as a team and start games better, that is what we are going to focus on.”

This weekend, Raycroft added, he felt his team was moving the puck better than they previously had and they are showing noticeable improvements as the season settles into its early stages.

The Wheatland Kings currently sit fourth in the league standings at eight points overall. This however is representative of the five recorded games played, compared to six games played represented by each of the other teams. 

Raycroft added going forward he hopes his team forgets some of the bad habits picked up during “blowout” games such as against the Red Deer Vipers (8-1 Kings victory on Oct. 4), and against the Ponoka Stampeders (11-0 Kings victory).

“It is good to play some of these tough games where you are playing a good team with good structure because you can’t make mistakes,” he said. “The 11-0 game did not help us at all. To be honest, we got some bad habits because things were going in and guys started going for goals instead of playing in the right spot. It is good to have some of these close games and not just blowouts because it gets everybody ready for the real tight games.”

Come Oct. 11 and 12, the Kings are queued up to square off against the Okotoks Bisons and the Sylvan Lake Wranglers respectively.