Kings drop the gloves and weekend series

Tyler Lowey
Times Reporter

 

A good-old-fashioned donnybrook broke out with the Red Deer Vipers, handicapping the Strathmore Wheatland Kings roster moving forward.
When the dust settled, the Vipers stuffed the Kings 5-1 on Oct. 7 in Heritage Junior Hockey League play at the Strathmore Family Centre.
The Kings trailed the Vipers 4-1 entering the third period when Kings captain Keenan Ogle delivered a suspicious hit to one of the Viper players.
“To me, it looked like the guy turned right before Keenan hit him. He turned to the side and kind of faced away from him at the last second,” said Kings coach Braden Desmet.
“I was going in for the hit and he rolled his shoulder over, leaving his back facing me,” said Ogle. “He was in a vulnerable position and I just finished my check. It was too late for me to change my path.”
The hit occurred near the Kings blueline along the boards.
A scrum ensued as players began to stick up for their collective sides. Assistant captains Cole Busslinger and Brenden Moore stepped in and ended up finding dancing partners and traded blows.
“It’s nice knowing guys in the same jersey as you are willing to step up for you when the other team starts picking on you,” said Ogle, whose last fight came two years ago with the Kings.
The emotions were still running high when Matt Thompson was handed a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct for fighting, or what Desmet believes was two guys wrestling, standing up with their gloves on.
While Desmet doesn’t believe there is any bad blood from a matchup last season, Moore pointed out that Strathmore and Red Deer have butted heads during the last two midget AA South Central Alberta Hockey League finals, and there might be a little emotion left over from that.
Regardless, the fights resulted in 60 penalty minutes and a few suspensions. Ogle got slapped with four games, Moore and Thompson received one game each and Laval Jerry received a pair of his games for an altercation with four minutes remaining.
Lost in the rumbles were two points. The Kings (2-4-1) failed to capitalize on the powerplay for the first time this season, and goaltender Brady Hoover allowed five goals on 20 shots.
“I thought it was our best first period of the season,” said Desmet.
Kristian Ayoungman opened the scoring at 10:51 in the first from Brooker Pretty Youngman. Despite directing 35 shots at the Vipers, they couldn’t bring the game any closer.
“And then, for whatever reason, we put it on cruise control in the second period and Red Deer took it to us,” said Desmet.
Two nights later, the Kings travelled to Blackfalds with a short roster and were clipped 4-3 in a shootout by the Blackfalds Wranglers at the Multi-Plex Ice Arena.
Hoover was back between the pipes as Tyler Zdunich notched his first goal of the season, with other scoring from Zachary Meadows and Ayoungman.
The Kings scored with just over five minutes remaining in the third to force overtime.
After a scoreless extra frame, Bradley Tingey, Pretty Youngman and Ayoungman were selected to shoot in the shootout. The Kings went 0-for-3 and the Wranglers tucked one in, going 1-for-3.
“It was a tough matchup on the road while missing a few guys, but we will be back this week working on things and getting ready for next weekend,” said Desmet.
The Kings return to action when they head to Airdrie Oct. 14 to take on the Airdrie Thunder (6-1-2) at Rob Ebbesen Arena. Next home game goes Oct. 15 at 8 p.m. at the Strathmore Family Centre when the Three Hills Thrashers (3-3-1) come to town.
Braden and Keenan have teamed up to man the bench in the absence of Kings head coach Shadoe Stoodley. The Kings skated a player in training camp who wasn’t released from his former club long enough prior to the camp. The infraction cost Stoodley five games. He will return behind the bench for the Kings-Thrashers game.