Kings close to breaking slump
By Brady Grove, Times Reporter
Doug Taylor Photo
The Kings had an unsuccessful week, also losing to the first-place Airdrie Thunder 3-2 in Airdrie on Nov. 30 and a 5-4 overtime loss to the Ponoka Stampeders in Strathmore.
“Tonight we came out slow and didn’t really have the foot movement we wanted,” said Kings head coach Joel Robinson. “I think once we got going and realized we were in a hockey game and let everything else go, we started playing some good hockey.”
It was a rough start against the Copperheads who scored two goals in the first five minutes of the game. They would add one more for good measure and suffocate the Kings to only three shots. Near the end of the first the Kings almost caught a lucky break when an innocent dump-in bounced through the Copperheads goalie and hit the post.
In the second, Kings defenseman Cody Caron took a huge body check yet made a beautiful pass to forward Rylee Hebert who streaked in from centre ice and battled his way to the front of the net, back-handing it into the top corner. It was a big momentum builder but the Copperheads remained calm and restored their three-goal lead at the end of the period.
The Kings played well in the third but they ran out of time. They scored two goals off hard work and hustle in the last two minutes but it wasn’t enough to change the outcome of the game.
“We had a slow start and from there we just kept going down,” said Kings winger A.J. Kusu. “We got some momentum at the end but it was a little too late.”
Kings goalie Brett Willan made 33 saves in the defeat as the Copperheads outshot their opponents by 16.
“We just played our game; we’ve got a pretty skilled, hardworking team and we know that they are fast and hardworking,” said Copperheads head coach Danton Shigemi. “All four lines can roll so that really helped us at the back end of a three-game weekend.”
To start the weekend, the Thunder beat the Kings and outshot them by 10 but Robinson felt his guys gave a strong fight and called it “their best 60 minutes of the season” against the first-place team.
The Kings outplayed the Stampeders the next night and were tied at four going into the third. The home town team peppered the visitors’ goalie 13-5 but couldn’t get one by and it cost them in overtime.
While the Kings only got one point in the standings, Robinson was happy with his team’s effort and development, and expects them to keep improving going forward.
The Kings are now riding a four-game losing streak in which three of their losses came by just one goal. This comes at a time when they are facing adversity from injuries with five regulars out of the lineup and nine different affiliated players subbing in this weekend. They sit in fourth place in the southern division with an 11-10-2 record.
The Kings will be on the road to play the High River Flyers on Dec. 7. After that, it’s home games against the Airdrie Thunder on Dec. 8 at 8 p.m. and the Cochrane Generals on Dec. 11 at 8:15 p.m.