Taking two of three, Kings sit tied with Waterloo for third place in conference
Weekend pays dividends, now Elmira prepares for decisive meeting with Siskins
THE ELMIRA SUGAR
KINGS had a busy Family Day weekend, posting two wins at home and a loss on the road to bump the team into a tie for third with Waterloo with only two games left in the regular season.
First up, Elmira headed to Listowel to take on the Cyclones, the Midwestern Conference’s top team. The visitors kept it close for the first couple of periods, but the home team came on late to skate away with a 5-3 victory.
It was a tame affair in the opening 20 minutes: scoreless, with Listowel mustering just five shots and the Kings one fewer. The teams exchanged minor penalties, with neither side able to capitalize on the advantage. But Elmira got things rolling in the second, with Tyler Beauparlant needing just 2:30 to put his team ahead, assisted by Harrison Toms and Zack Cameron.
The Kings held that lead for nine minutes, when Listowel knotted the score at 1-1 before going ahead less than five minutes later.
Beauparlant’s second of the night, a power play marker at 18:48 assisted by Skinner and Braydon Munn, sent the teams into the intermission locked up at 2-2. Shots were 12-8 for the home side.
The third got off to a good start, with Ethan Wiseman (Toms) putting Elmira up 3-2 just 57 seconds in. Unfortunately, that was it for Elmira’s scoring. Listowel put up
three unanswered goals, including an empty netter, to take the match.
Listowel will be the team to beat in the conference as the playoffs start up, having thus far put up a record of 41-5-0-1. The Cyclones’ 83 points are 29 better than Elmira’s record of 27-21, though the visitors skated with them for much of the night. That’s something for the coaching staff to build on.
“Execution from goal line to goal line has to be perfect to beat them,” said Nik Knezic, assistant coach for the Kings. “They are so good at making you pay when you break down defensively or in the neutral zone, and they just showed it again on Friday. We were right there – I felt like we played a really good game – it’s just a couple simple mistakes that we know we can correct and hopefully we can take care of that if we ever see them again.”
After a break on Saturday the team returned home to face off against Guelph, the conference’s seventh-place team. The Kings dominated much of the game, the 4016 shot differential indicative of the 7-2 final score.
A little different than their game against Listowel, Elmira scored three quick ones in the first – from Wiseman on the power play, Skinner shorthanded and the third from Cameron. Guelph got just one, a shorthanded marker. It was 3-1 Kings after 20 minutes.
Ryan Takamatsu (Figueira, Cameron) scored at the halfway point of the second to make it 4-1 before Guelph got its second and final goal of the night, a power play effort at 14:13.
The Kings wouldn’t let Guelph come any closer to a comeback, scoring three more in the third before the final buzzer.
The first came off the stick of Jeremey Goodwin (Munn, Berube) at 10:54, followed by Alex Peterson potting one from Skinner at 14:30. Beauparlant finished things out with a power play goal at 16:51, the assists going to Cameron and Takamatsu.
The Kings outshot Guelph 40-16, a feat Knezic credits to their power down low.
“We did a really good job taking care of our end against Guelph Sunday, and it helped produce more offence for us,” he said. “We played our best hockey this season when we have taken care of our own end and then attacked from our own end out. We have a lot of troubles when we try to cheat for offence and that has definitely burned us. It burned us a lot early in the season and it’s something that we have tidied up a lot.”
With not much of a break, the Kings put on a show for more than 1,000 fans, their biggest crowd of the season, during a special Family Day Monday game against the Waterloo Siskins, a 4-2 victory.
“To see that many people out made it feel like playoffs – that was a first for a lot of guys playing in front of that many people,” said Skinner, who scored the winning goal. “And for us to win that game for all the fans was good. Hopefully crowds will stay big into the playoffs. It was a win we needed to have and we made sure in the end that we got it.”
After going down 2-0, Elmira came back to take control of the game.
Waterloo scored the only goal of both the opening and middle frames, but the Kings poured it on in the third – shots were 11-4, and 29-23 overall at the end – to take the win.
Berube started the comeback at 2:11 of the third, from Jeff Jordan and Wiseman. Elmira’s Munn capitalized on a man advantage, scoring just five minutes later to tie it up, from Takamatsu and Berube. Skinner then scored to give the Kings their first lead of the day, assisted by Takamatsu and J. Goodwin at 16:07. And before the buzzer went, Tyler Biles slipped one into an empty net with just 14 seconds left to seal the win for the home team.
Knezic credits the size of the crowd in helping the team to mount the comeback, lifting them to the win.
“The energy came from a couple of different places. Definitely the crowd helped a ton on Monday – that was the best crowd we have had all season,” he said. “The sense of community in Elmira is phenomenal and the hockey team is deeply ingrained in that. It’s phenomenal to see so many young families come out.
“Hopefully, that’s indicative of what’s to come. With our last home game and with the playoffs coming up, we think that we can do something special here. We put that on ourselves – we expect a lot from this team and hopefully we can keep them coming back and give them something to cheer about.”
With two games left in the regular season, the Kings are deadlocked for third with the Siskins, with the two teams going headto-head Saturday night (7:30 p.m.) in Waterloo.
The Kings then play their final regular-season game Sunday afternoon against Brantford at the WMC. Game time is 2 p.m.