Despite seeing their four-game winning streak snapped on home ice Saturday, the Dauphin Kings didn’t lose ground in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s MGEU West Division.

Cayden Glover had a goal and two assists to lead the Kings to a 4-1 win over the Swan Valley Stampeders, Jan. 21 in Swan River.

It was Dauphin’s fourth win in a row.

On Saturday, in front of a capacity crowd of 2,112 for Ukrainian Night, Bryce Bryant scored twice to lead the Virden Oil Capitals to a 4-2 win, snapping Dauphin’s winning streak.

Dauphin’s record now sits at 26-10-1-0 for 53 points, six ahead of the Northern Manitoba Blizzard and Neepawa Titans. Neepawa pulled into a tie with the Blizzard over the weekend, with the Blizzard maintaining its hold on second place by virtue of having two more wins than the Titans.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley, who returned behind the bench against the Winnipeg Blues, Jan. 18, is happy to be back from his eight-game suspension.

“I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward down the stretch. We’ve got a real good group of kids that are going to work hard,” he said.

“It was a tough one tonight, but we’ll get better.”

Hedley said the team has played really well in the four wins prior to Saturday’s loss.

“We played with speed. We played north-south, we made some plays at the blueline. We made some great plays in small spaces and came through with some big goals. We scored a lot of goals this segment,” he said.

“But unfortunately tonight, we had a lot of shots and a lot of opportunities, we just didn’t get in front of his (Virden goalie Loic Morin) eyes. We didn’t take any eyes away at all.”

Virden did a good job of getting sticks into lanes, often deflecting passes or shots. But the Kings still managed to direct 39 shots at Morin, who finished the night with 37 saves, while limiting the Oil Capitals to just eight shots through 40 minutes.

Virden grabbed a 2-0 lead after the first period and Glover scored twice in the second period to tie the game entering the third.

Virden’s Adler Johnston took advantage of a miscue to score the go-ahead goal at 7:44 when Kings defenceman Aiden Murray skated the puck in front of the Kings net and collided with a teammate, presenting Johnston with an opportunity he did not miss.

The Oil Capitals added an insurance marker with 3:17 remaining.

Hedley said Virden was just waiting for the Kings to make a mistake.

“And we made a mistake with about eight minutes left. All of a sudden it’s 3-2 and they can just frustrate the hell out of you,” he added.

Hedley would like to see more players adopt and shoot first mentality.

“We’ve got to get better finishing. Gabriel Bugeaud is one of our best shooters on the team and he passed the puck off twice when he was right in the slot to shoot,” he said.

“We’ve got to start thinking that we want to score goals. It’s okay to share the puck, but when you can shoot like he can and when you’re in the slot, there’s no sense  passing it over to somebody.”

Hedley added the Kings did not do a good job of stopping on pucks, doing a fly-by instead, while Virden was stopping on pucks in the last 10 minutes.

Hedley also feels the special teams can improve. The Kings were just one-for-six on the power play, Saturday.

“We have great movement, great possession. But we’re not taking eyes away, we’re not getting a net front presence and we’re not getting rebounds. We’ve got to find a way to get into those tough spaces, those tough areas to get second shots and rebounds,” he said.

The Kings will look for better results when they are in Virden, for a rematch on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, the Kings return to Credit Union Place to face the Blizzard, also at 7:30 p.m.

Kings court: Dauphin’s record on Ukrainian Night falls to 4-5. They won in each of the last three years before Saturday’s loss to Virden. . . .With two goals on Saturday, Cayden Glover now leads the MJHL with 33 goals and 10 power-play markers. And he has also moved into a second place tie in league scoring with Niverville’s Adam Vigfuson, each with 52 points. They trail Steinbach’s Connor Paronuzzi, who leads with 61. With 44 points, Naaman Hofer continues to lead all defencemen in scoring . . . defenceman Matt Haun announced his commitment to play at College of St. Scholastica, next season. The Saints play NCAA Division 3 hockey in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) . . . Glover and Hofer will be joined at the MJHL/SJHL Showcase this week by defenceman Matthew Thomas and goaltender Cole Sheffield on the 20U Black team for the MJHL/SJHL Showcase, which takes place this week. Forward Gavin Nemis will suit up for the 18U squad.