Kings drop road games

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Caleb Gordon, a Rosebud School ofThe Wheatland Kings scored the first goal in both road games but unfortunately could not build on those leads, losing 6-5 in Cochrane on Jan. 29 and 5-4 in a shootout to Ponoka on Jan. 30.
Veteran defenseman Blake Bishop said the boys just didn’t have the success they were looking for.
“In Cochrane we knew we had a hard challenge and it was good to get that first goal lead,” said Bishop. “But we didn’t get the puck luck and from there it was tough to battle back.
“In Ponoka, we played hard until the third period and just let off at the end and paid the consequences. We shot the puck lots, worked hard for 50 minutes, but you give up that 10 minutes and that’s where it goes down hill.”
He added that the team felt confident in going to the shootout against Ponoka, having worked on shootouts during practice. However, they were well aware the experience would be different once they were in a game situation.
“It’s too bad,” said Bishop. “We’re lucky to come out with one point and clinch fourth place in our division. That’s all we’re focused on right now is playoffs.”
Bishop cautioned that the team can’t afford to let the foot off the pedal, and to keep meshing as a group.
Hayden Vanderploeg, Brennan Fuoco, Jacen Bracko, Chris Williams and Brendan Moore scored in the loss to Cochrane.
Williams, Kyle Dunville, Cole Busslinger and Zach Meadows scored in the shootout loss to Ponoka.
The Kings played their last regular season home game versus Banff on Feb. 2 (results were unavailable as of press time) and will end the season in Cochrane on Feb. 6 (7:30 p.m.) and in Okotoks on Feb. 7 (1:15 p.m.).