Kings on edge of elimination

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Wheatland Kings are on the verge of elimination following the first two games of their best-of-five playoff series against the Medicine Hat Cubs, Feb. 22 and 23. 

Game 1 of the series saw the Kings playing at home after they claimed second place in the regular season by the skin of their teeth, closing 55 points, while Medicine Hat scored 54. 

“Saturday, it was a pretty good game for most (part) – in the third period they got three power play goals at the beginning … they got to pull ahead of us quite a bit,” said Doug Raycroft, head coach of the Wheatland Kings. “There was some penalty trouble and then we did fight back a couple but we lost 5-2. The one player they have got four goals. He is the top scorer in the league and that is the one guy we are trying to keep off the scoresheet.”

Sunday saw the Kings being the away team, playing in Medicine Hat. Despite outshooting the Cubs, the Kings were defeated once again with a final score of 3-2.

Raycroft said regardless of the losses, he is happy with how his team played. Overall, the plan going into Game 3 is largely going to be the same as the first two games.

“Really what we need to do is to get some of our players who have been scoring this year, they need to find the net here a little bit,” he said. “Mostly, we have only had two players who have really scored, so we need some of the other guys to pick up the pace here with some goalscoring.”

Raycroft added during the first game of the series, the Kings took some undisciplined penalties, among other problems on both ends of the ice. 

Into the second game, play had noticeably improved, however, a simple lack of goals scored lead to their defeat. 

“We played really well and deserved a better fate, so going into Wednesday, you really have to go in with the same mindset and just trust if you play that way you will be successful,” said Raycroft. 

“Now we are down to one more loss and we are out of the season, so we have to find a way one game at a time. Win Wednesday and then go back into their rink and play the same way we did on Sunday and then hopefully come out on the winning side of it.”