The Dauphin Kings and Blizzard Jr. A Hockey Club are going the distance in their best-of-seven quarterfinal series.
Cayden Glover’s goal 10:46 into the fifth overtime period lifted the Dauphin Kings to a 3-2 victory over the Blizzard in game six, Monday in Dauphin.
After taking a two-games-to-none lead, the Kings saw their first-round opponent capitalize on some breaks to score three straight victories.
The Blizzard got back into the series with a 5-3 win in game three, Mar. 26, in The Pas.
Miguel Bouvier’s goal 4:34 into double overtime, Mar. 28, in Dauphin, evened the series at two games apiece.
The Blizzard then took the series lead with a 3-2 win in game five, Mar. 30, in The Pas, setting the stage for what turned into an epic battle between two evenly-matched teams.
Following Monday’s game six victory, Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley said was proud of how hard the team worked.
“And (goaltender Cole Sheffield) Sheff, outstanding. Both goaltenders were outstanding,” he said.
Sheffield finished with 71 saves, while his Blizzard counterpart Tomas Anderson made 61 stops.
Hedley said the Blizzard got a few breaks which allowed them to take the series lead after five games.
With the Blizzard leading 4-3 late in game three, the Kings hit a couple of goal posts before the Blizzard sealed the win with an empty-net marker.
“Come back here and they win in double overtime. And then going back up there, it was a real tight game. I really liked the way we pushed back up there. We got outplayed the first period and we didn’t get off to a great start. We got down 2-0, but came back and made it a game. We outplayed them in the last 40,” Hedley said. “Both teams are so evenly matched.”
The pushback continued in game six with the Blizzard twice taking a one-goal lead only for the Kings to come back to tie it, with Alex Senf’s goal with 54 seconds remaining in regulation forcing the issue to go into overtime.
Both teams had quality chances in each of the overtime periods, but Sheffield and Anderson were equal to the task until Glover threw the puck at the net and it eluded Anderson sending what was left of the 1,041 fans in attendance home happy.
“I just can’t say enough about our pushback and our never quitting. Never giving up. This could be a galvanizing moment for us. We were talking in the room about how this could be the start of the journey, not the end,” Hedley said. “We found a way to get it done. We believed. (Sunday) we met and the whole room believed that we could find a way to get this done. Now they’re going back, getting home late. They’ve got to make two trips to our one.”
The key to success in game seven will be to keep things simple, Hedley said.
“Just like what we’ve been doing. We were relieving pressure by rimming pucks. We’ve been hitting, sticking and pinning the whole time. A lot better low in the D zone,” he said. “They had some opportunities, but we had some good opportunities, too. In fact, I thought it was over about three times, with (Jordan) Bax with an empty net, Zalischuk an empty net on rebounds and Glover walks in on a breakaway. Both goaltenders played well. You’ve got to give both teams credit for working hard and never quitting.”
Game seven will go, Wednesday in The Pas at 7 p.m.
