Wild and Pride
Wild uses special teams play to defeat Pride in Game 2 of Island final
The Charlottetown Pride hosted the Kensington Wild in Game 2 of the Island major midget hockey championship at MacLauchlan Arena Wednesday evening.
The Kensington Monaghan Farms Wild capitalized on its chances and the Charlottetown Bulk Carriers Pride didn’t Wednesday to tie the Prince Edward Island major midget final 1-1. Zach Thususka and Cameron Roberts scored power-play goals to pace the Wild to a 3-1 win at MacLauchlan Arena. All four goals came in the second period.
Wild goalie Luke Oliver was the difference early, stopping all 19 shots he faced in the first period. It included a twominute 5-on-3 Pride power play. “He was our game star here tonight,” Wild head coach Kyle Dunn said. “He kept his composure in there and hats off to him for keeping us in the first period.”
The Pride had a 19-6 shot advantage after 20 minutes. “We challenged a few guys in between periods and they responded,” Dunn said. Thususka said the message during the first intermission was simple.
“We had to get our heads up,” he said. “We just weren’t working in the first.”
The Summerside native scored on a rebound to open the scoring 1:23 into the second period. Roberts tallied about 40 seconds later, and Evan Gallant cashed in on a two-on-one chance to make it 3-0, midway through the period.
“It definitely raises everyone’s confidence and gets the guys rolling,” Thususka said. Pride forward Josh MacDonald scored an unassisted goal off a turnover in front of Oliver to get Charlottetown on the board late in the second. The Pride went 0-for-7 with the man advantage, something Dunn credited to extra video sessions studying their opposition’s power play.
“Their special teams were better than ours,” Pride head coach Luke Beck said. “They scored two power-play goals and we didn’t score any and it’s a 3-1 game. The math is pretty easy to do.” Thususka, Gallant, Tayler Read, Bennett MacArthur, Ethan Beaulieu and Clark Webster had assists for the Wild. Oliver made 44 saves for the win, while Noah Laybolt stopped 26 shots in the loss. “Nobody expected it was going to be a four-game sweep. It’s two pretty evenly matched teams,” Beck said. “It’s just a matter who can reset and refocus and be prepared for the next game.”
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Kensington.
While pleased to have regained home ice, Dunn said his team has to be more disciplined.
“We can’t be going to the box and giving . . . that type of power play too many looks and opportunities. Eventually, they’re going to figure it out and cash in.”