Kings split a pair over the weekend, winning in Brampton before falling to Stratford at home
Team seems to like it on the road, as six of their eight victories have come at away games; Elmira in Brantford tonight
THE KINGS SPLIT A pair of games last week, finding the road more hospitable than home ice. A 3-0 win that saw the team provide full value in Brampton was followed by a 5-2 loss to the visiting Stratford Warriors on Sunday.
Despite traffic congestion on the road to Brampton last Thursday night, the Sugar Kings were able to hit their stride with a solid 60-minute effort to give them their sixth win on the road.
“We persevered as a team, overcoming a bad accident on the highway that made us an hour and a half later than what we wanted,” said head coach Trent Brown. “We used our speed and supported the puck, it is a small ice surface in Brampton and sometimes you just have to simplify things in order to maximize efficiency.”
Jeremey Goodwin got the Kings on the scoreboard, assisted by Matt Murray and Jonah Burley, with less than a minute left in the first period.
“Goodwin’s was a breakaway – great outlet pass from Jonah Burley. It started with calm presence of mind behind the net, making a good first pass and then a great stretch pass from Burley to Jeremey finding his ice and using his speed to take the puck to the net,” the coach said.
Elmira kept things rolling after the break, with captain Jeff Jordan scoring on a power play from Zack Cameron and Ryan Takamatsu just 30 seconds into the second.
That was followed by a goal from Ty Biles (Ethan Wiseman, Mason McMahon) at 17:40 to wrap up the game.
“Biles beat the goalie short side above his blocker from a really bad angle,” Brown explained. “It was a great shot.”
Goalie Rhett Kimmel stopped all 32 Brampton shots for his first shutout of the season.
“He kept us in there when we were in a lull and Brampton was taking it to us. He was there for us and made a couple of key saves early,” said Brown. “Pucks were sticking to him, he had great rebound control yesterday as well.”
And with that the Kings left Brampton with a 3-0 win, their eighth of the season.
After a day off, the Kings were on home ice to face off against the Stratford Warriors.
Both teams went scoreless during the first, however, the Kings’ leading goal scorer, Skinner, was ejected 9 minutes into the frame.
“He is a very impactful player for us. He contributes on both sides of the puck, defensively, offensively, power play, penalty kill – he is one of the best players in the league. I will put him up against anybody in the league and when he is on his game and pushing the pace and playing the way that he can it elevates everyone around him,” explained Brown of Skinner’s impact on the team. “He is that important to our team that it hurts when he is gone after playing ten minutes of this game.”
The second saw Elmira’s Mason McMahon score two minutes in, with assists from Jacob Code and Matt MacKay.
Code, a call-up from Waterloo major midget, proved to be an exceptional addition to the roster Sunday night.
“Code has exceeded expectations for us when we have used him. He contributed offensively, didn’t hurt us defensively and he has a lot of heart,” Brown said of the Elmira native. “He goes to places and works where guys of similar size might shy away, especially as a 16-year-old, but Jake does it with vigour.”
Stratford answered back on the power play, followed by Elmira potting a power play goal of their own from Takamatsu (Goodwin, Harrison Toms) at 13:04 to make it 2-1 Elmira.
Stratford scored with less than a minute left in the second, tying up the game heading into intermission.
Following the half, Stratford scored a goal on the power play at 1:55 and again just after 17 minutes. At the buzzer, Stratford’s Kaleb Pearson potted an empty netter, unassisted, to make the final score 5-2 in favour of the visitors.
“It was a good game tonight. We didn’t perform for a full 60 tonight, but we had times where we played really well and that was nice to see,” said Goodwin, who finished the night with one assist. “We had times where we were really playing our systems and then we kind of lost track of focus in the third period.”
Three of the Warriors’ five goals came on the power play.
“They won the special teams battle. They outplayed us. They outworked us on both sides of the puck and on both sides of the situations, man-up and man-down. There were times I thought where we controlled the play, used our speed and used our size down low but there are times as well where we just weren’t mentally sharp and they took advantage of it every time,” said Brown.
Despite the tough loss, the current points leader is staying positive.
“Any team in this league can beat any team on any given day. Whenever we play a full 60 minutes, I think we can compete with anybody,” said Goodwin.
The team is heading to play the last-place Brantford 99ers Thursday evening. The Kings are back at the WMC Sunday night to take on the Kitchener Dutchmen. The puck drops at 7 p.m.
“We need to bring our A game every shift, we need to be there every time and show up like the Elmira Sugar Kings can,” said Brown.