The Dauphin Kings dominated their home and season opener, Friday night, against the Swan Valley Stampeders.
It took the Kings more than eight minutes to find the net, but when they did, they opened the flood gates, building a 4-0 lead after the first period and extending it to 6-1 after 40 minutes.
Three players - Logan Walker, rookie Gavin Nemis and Blake Boudreau - each scored twice in the victory, while Gabriel Bugeaud had a single before he was tossed on a checking from behind minor in the second frame.
Truman Boettiger had the lone goal for the Stampeders.
Cole Sheffield was solid in goal for the Kings, making 24 saves, while his Swan Valley counterpart Elias Giaccan-Dimitriou stopped 33 shots in the loss.
Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley felt there were a lot of good things for the Kings to build on coming out of the season opener.
“If you start off in the D zone, our D unit was controlling the game. A lot of good reverse plays, a lot of good quick ups, up through the dots, one touch passes and good first passes,” he said. “We had so many good exits tonight that were out of our zone and then three passes later we were going in for a shot on net.”
That, Hedley added, was the result of good puck support, including support through the middle, and players putting pucks up along the boards and making smart plays.
“I liked our speed. I liked our attack in the middle lane. We started right off the hop with Carter (Zalischuk) driving the middle lane and making some plays. It’s contagious,” he said. “And when young guys like Nemis and (Rhett) Perrin work like that and catch guys from behind, it makes your D unit’s job so much easier.”
All four lines, Hedley said, played well. Bugeaud played well before he was ejected, and Josh Schmidt worked hard and never quit.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys like that this year. The experience is one thing. But obviously, it’s the first game of the year, so you take it with a grain of salt. But at the same time, I really liked the effort, I liked the speed, the compete. Just being teammates together and working hard,” he said.
The big thing now is to continue to play strong no matter who the opponent is.
The next challenge came Sunday night in The Pas, when the Kings faced the OCN Blizzard.
Naaman Hofer’s goal 4:21 into the third period stood up as the winner in a 2-1 Kings victory.
Boudreau staked Dauphin to a 1-0 lead on a penalty shot just 43 second into the second period.
Mathew Langdon made it a one-goal game a little more than three minutes after Hofer’s goal.
Sheffield stopped 20 shots in the win, while Loic Morin had 24 saves for the Blizzard.
With 28 players still in camp, more cuts were made early this week.
“We’ll be down to 25 by Monday or Tuesday,” Hedley said.
Friday, the Kings face the Portage Terriers in Portage at 7:30 p.m., before hosting the Selkirk Steelers, Sunday at 4 p.m. Prior to that, the Kings wil continue to focus on their systems including special teams.
“We’re ahead of last year, because our exhibition games were spread out. So we started teaching earlier and we started implanting our systems a little bit and our forecheck and neutral zone and D zone. We’ll just reinforce that during through the week and try to get our special teams going,” Hedley said.
