The Dauphin Kings are showing signs of coming out of their slump, but they are not getting the results.
The Kings lost two of three games, last week, including a pair of home ice losses to the division-leading Virden Oil Capitals.
Virden scored a 2-1 win, Dec. 5, and a 4-3 triumph, Sunday.
In between was a 4-1 Kings victory over the Winnipeg Blues, Saturday.
In their last 11 games, Dauphin has a 3-7-1-0 record and have scored just 24 times in that span, while allowing 32 goals against.
With a 16-9-1-0 overall record, the Kings now sit in third place, one point behind the OCN Blizzard and they now trail Virden by nine points. Dauphin has two games in hand on both teams.
Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley, who is serving a 10-game suspension for a gross misconduct assessed in a 5-1 loss to Steinbach, Nov. 24, said the Kings have gone through a stretch where the work ethic wasn’t good.
“And prior to that, we were winning games, but finding ways to win. We got away from our what our strengths were and doing little things well. It finally caught up to us in certain games where we lost one-goal games,” he said. “We got away from being patient. We got away from playing on the right side of pucks and managing pucks. Basically, right now, we’re finding ways to give games away instead of finding ways to win.”
Sunday was an example of that.
After Virden built a 3-0 first-period lead, the Kings slowly chipped away and tied it in the second.
But the Oil Capitals took advantage of some sloppy play on the first shift of the third period and scored what proved to be the winning goal.
“It starts from goaltending out. You have to have goaltending. You have to have guys buying in and getting into shooting lanes and making smart plays and reading off teammates,” Hedley said. “The last two weeks there’s been some individual play rather than team play. We’ve just got to figure it out and get better.”
Among the positives the team can take from Sunday’s loss is the comeback from that early 3-0 deficit.
“There’s a lot of little things we can get better at. We know we’ve got a good hockey club. It’s just a matter of staying on course and thinking about the process it’s going to take,” Hedley said. “The league is getting better and we’ve got to get better.”
The Kings have relied on balanced scoring all season, with Jordan Bax, Logan Walker and Blake Boudreau leading the way.
But they got offensive contributions from Gavin Nemis and Madden Murray on Sunday, and Rylan Gibbs and Alex Senf on Saturday.
“We knew coming in that the back end was going to run (things) and help us win games. But right now we’re at a point where the forwards have to start contributing regularly,” Hedley said. “We have done a lot of experimenting, moving guys in and out and different line combinations. And the last few games, we’ve been creating opportunities. For a while there we weren’t.”
The great start the Kings had at the beginning of the season, Hedley said, allows the team to go through some adversity.
“But we’ve got to find our way here, soon,” he added.
The Kings have two games left before the Christmas break.
They are in Selkirk, Friday, before visiting the Flyers in Winkler on Sunday.
Both games will be tough.
“Selkirk is playing really well. They’re beating some good teams lately. And they always play us tough at home,” Hedley said. “We’ve got to get hungry on the road. It’s the Christmas break, guys have other things on their mind. But at the same time, it sure would be a good way to finish with two road wins.”
