The Kensington Wild takes a 2-0 lead into Game 3 vs. Charlottetown.
Game 3 vs. Pride goes Saturday in Kensington
The Kensington Monaghan Farms Wild scored twice in 43 seconds to take a 4-2 lead and never gave it up Thursday to take a 2-0 advantage in the Prince Edward Island major midget hockey final.
Ryan Richards scored the winner at 9:46 of the second period as the Wild defeated the host Charlottetown Bulk Carriers Pride 6-2 at MacLauchan Arena. The winner came six seconds after the Pride took a penalty to negate a power play. Colby MacArthur scored the insurance marker on the ensuing power play for the Wild. It was his second of the night.
“That’s huge,” Wild head coach Kyle Dunn said of Richards’ goal. “Then coming back on the power play and scoring again.”
The Pride called a timeout and applied pressure during the second half of the game, but couldn’t bury their chances past Chad Arsenault, who stopped 32 shots for the victory and was named the team’s game star.
“He stood on his head and he kept us in it,” Dunn said.
Pride bench boss Luke Beck was pleased with his charges’ efforts.
“The scoreboard doesn’t tell the story tonight,” he said. “We had a much better effort throughout our lineup as opposed to Game 1 where I thought we didn’t have enough guys on board.”
PIVOTAL POINT
He said the two quick goals midway through the contest was a pivotal point and resulted in the Pride chasing the game after that.
The Pride kept coming and had chances to close the gap but was unable to beat Arsenault. Trailing 5-2 with five minutes to go, the Pride pulled goalie Erik MacInnis for the extra attacker.
“I thought are kids earned that right tonight,” Beck said. “I thought our kids battled hard. Even after they made it 6-2, I still saw guys blocking shots and battling in front of our net.”
Isaac Wilson had an empty-net goal and two assists while Lucas Parsons and Dixon MacLeod also scored. Zach Biggar had two assists while Kalib Snow, Jack Campbell and Richards each had one as the Wild built 2-1 and 4-2 period leads.
Cam MacLean, on the power play, and Ed McNeill scored for Charlottetown, with captain Nick Reeves drawing the lone assist. MacInnis made 30 stops in the loss.
Game 3 in the best-of-seven series goes Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Credit Union Centre in Kensington.
DISCIPLINE
Both coaches agreed discipline has to improve. The Pride took 11 minor penalties and Jacob Squires received a 10-minute misconduct with 4:03 left. The Wild took nine minors and Richards was also handed a 10-minute misconduct.
Dunn said you can’t give good teams power plays all night and expect to win. With a ticket in the Atlantics in Charlottetown next month, the lessons have to be learned now before the stakes and pressure increases to another level.
“We don’t want to be going to the box all night, but we realize emotions are running high and we have to learn to control them,” he said.
“We want to play hard and we want to play physical but understanding the line,” Beck said. “We’re not going to back down. We’re going to play hard, we’re going to play physical and give ourselves a chance. It’s playoff hockey and hopefully the game will be allowed to be called that way.”