The Dauphin Kings split a home-and-home series with the Steinbach Pistons over the weekend.
The weekend began with the Kings handing the Pistons their first loss of the season, a 5-3 setback at Credit Union Place. Steinbach got their revenge with an 8-1 win on home ice, Sunday afternoon.
After the Pistons took the lead midway through the first period on Friday, the Kings pulled even late in the frame and then took the lead with three in the second.
Steinbach outscored the Kings 2-1 in the third, but it was too little, too late.
Cole Sheffield was outstanding in goal for Dauphin making 49 saves.
On Sunday, the Pistons built a 3-0 lead after the first period and increased it to 6-1 after 40 minutes.
The Kings were outstanding on the penalty kill, Friday, according to head coach and general manager Doug Hedley, after they killed off five of six Steinbach power plays.
“Sheffield was the best penalty killer. When you do that, you’re going to have success,” he said. “And we took advantage of mistakes. But our speed tonight, we skated with them all the time. In fact, we had odd man rushes where we capitalized on mistakes on a couple of two-on-ones and some nice goals.”
Hedley has talked before about how the Kings would have to rely on scoring by committee and that was evident, Friday night. Dauphin scored five goals, but Mason Smith was the only player to register more than one point with two assists.
“I think the line of Gibby (Rylan Gibbs) and (Connor) Picard and (Jackson) Gudz were good. They ate up some minutes for us and Gibby got a big goal. The kid is playing well. He’s earning the trust, that’s for sure,” Hedley said.
After struggling early in the season with 12 goals in the first six games, Dauphin’s offence has hit its stride with 16 in the last three games.
“It’s good to see. We’re getting opportunities. We were getting opportunities before, we just weren’t capitalizing,” Hedley said. “But I think right now, our D zone is getting to a point where we’re really protecting it. We’re pushing battles to corners, we’re winning battles and getting pucks out of our zone.”
A win against the top team in the East Division, which came into the contest undefeated will be huge for the team’s confidence.
“The dressing room is really happy right now. We’ll have a quick skate (Saturday), go back into Steinbach and hopefully, we can play a disciplined game there and keep it tight,” Hedley said.
Kings court:
Forward Blake Boudreau is currently out day-to-day with a knee injury. Forward Carter Zalischuk was handed a two-game suspension for his boarding major against the Winnipeg Blues, Sept. 30.
