Eventually it will happen, but so far the Dauphin Kings just can’t seem to catch the Blizzard Jr. A Hockey Club.
After winning two of three games, last week, the Kings trail the Blizzard by four points, with two games in hand.
But the one loss the local junior A hockey club suffered last week was at the hands of the Blizzard, a 4-0 setback, last Tuesday in The Pas, a game in which the Blizzard outshot the Kings 45-15.
Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley felt it was one of the team’s worst games of the season.
“We weren’t very good. We talked about it being a good test for our group and we didn’t step up,” he said. “We weren’t good right from the back end to the front end. We could have played better. We’ve just got to clean up a few areas. It just came down to compete level and we didn’t compete as well as we wanted to that night.”
It was a quick turnaround for the Kings as they faced the Swan Valley Stampeders, the next afternoon at 12:30 p.m. on the Stamps’ school day.
Alex Senf scored twice and added an assist to lead the Kings to a 4-1 win.
“Seibs (goaltender Austin Seibel) played very well in net. Sheff (goaltender Cole Sheffield) just needed a break. He’s been playing quite a few games. Seibs stepped in, did a great job and we found a way to get two points,” Hedley said.
The Kings had their work cut out for them on Friday, as the Winnipeg Freeze took them to overtime, but Dauphin prevailed 4-3 on Logan Walker’s second goal of the game and third point.
Freeze netminder Braxton Burdeny was the story of the game, making 48 saves to keep his team in it.
“You have to give him credit, he was good. One of our strengths is how fast we play and how hard we work and when we do that, we’re a tough team to play against,” Hedley said. “In OCN, we weren’t a very tough team to play against. We weren’t hard on pucks. The last couple of games we were getting back to where we were.”
Because of the blizzard which hit most of southern Manitoba, Sunday, the Kings were unable to travel to The Pas, for another game against the Blizzard.
The Kings have three big matches on the card this week, with a game in Virden against the MGEU West Division-leading Oil Capitals tonight.
On Friday, they visit the Neepawa Titans, before hosting the Blizzard, Saturday at Credit Union Place.
All three games begin at 7:30 p.m.
With the season winding down, these are three big games the Kings will need to win.
“If we could run the table that’d be great. We’re correcting a few things. We’ve got to clean up a few areas. We’ve got to be better in our D zone. Just the consistency part of our game needs to be there right through our lineup,” Hedley said. “We’ve got seven games to work at it and get it going.”
Kings court:
After this week, the Kings will have four games remaining on their schedule - Mar. 12 at home against the Portage Terriers in a makeup game, Mar. 15 against the Winnipeg Blues in Winnipeg, and Mar. 16 in Selkirk against the Steelers. Sunday’s game in The Pas has yet to be rescheduled.
