Kings playoff run ends with Game 4 defeat in Cochrane

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The crown has shattered and the playoff dream for the Wheatland Kings came careening to a stop, on Feb. 20, as they were defeated 4-2 in Cochrane in Game 4 of their second round series. 

It was the third defeat in a row for the Kings after having only taken the first game of the best-of-five set against the Generals.

“Obviously, we are pretty raw. We had hopes to go a little further this year. Different breaks and the way the games turned out … obviously we didn’t. Right now, the boys are pretty upset, but that’s sports, that’s athletics, that’s hockey,” said Head Coach, Doug Raycroft. “You get your same amount of time as everybody else and you know, we will regroup and see what we can come back with next year.”

Contrary to the first two games of the series, Raycroft added he believes his team brought much better performances to the ice in the latter two.

Among his other complaints, he called out the pattern of poor officiating which takes place throughout the league, which often leads to extremely impactful, and often detrimental calls being made. 

“We really deserved to win the third game of the series. We outplayed them just about the whole game, (but) we were on the wrong side of a whole bunch of calls. The officiating in this league has been really horrendous most of the time,” he said.

“(The refs) missed a call, they thought they saw something else, we looked at it on review, and it was wrong. It cost us a five-on-three goal, and then the overtime goal, they tripped one of our guys and didn’t call it and that ended up being the reason why they scored (in Game 3).”

Another contributing factor was the absence of the Kings top scorer, Luke Nottveit, throughout the entirety of the playoff run due to an incorrect suspension call, according to Raycroft. 

Among the roster, there are four players who are aging out of the league this season, being Cole Tweit, Josh Alberda, Trey Kam, and Chase Berg.

Raycroft explained he had initially thought this year would be a bit of a “rebuild year” for the team, particularly after losing players like Phillip Raycroft, Joel Romano, and Tegan Skehar to age-out. Instead, the Kings were able to finish second in the south division by the end of the regular season.

Across the 22-player roster, nine of the Kings were rookies this season, which Raycroft aims to see continue developing going forward.

“We’ve got some first-year players who I thought were gritty and really played well and when it got a little tougher, they got tougher, so we were pretty happy with that … and I think they have a bright future going forward,” he said. “We lost a lot of older guys, and brought some young guys in … when you take a younger player, they are playing against 20-year-olds, so you have to make sure they are tough enough and have the courage so that they stay safe out there.”

The Kings will meet again in the spring for their annual awards banquet to celebrate the season and say an official farewell to the over-aged players.