Wild in front 3-0
Kensington pulls away from Pride in third period
The final score did not tell the entire story of Game 3 in the provincial major midget hockey championship series.
KENSINGTON – The final score did not tell the entire story of Game 3 in the provincial major midget hockey championship series.
The Kensington Monaghan Farms Wild scored three unanswered third-period goals to break open a close game en route to a 5-1 win, but the contest was much closer than the final score would indicate. The result gives the Wild a commanding 3-0 lead in the bestof-seven series, with Game 4 at MacLauchlan Arena in Charlottetown on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
“It was a good win,” said Wild head coach Kyle Dunn, who liked how his team responded entering the third period up 2-1. “We went in after the second period and challenged our team.
“I thought this was the best game Charlottetown played this series. Down a goal going into the third period, we knew there was going to be a big push by them, and we just said, ‘We need a big push by us to match it.’”
Wild sophomore forward Landon Clow said the players understood what was at stake in the final 20 minutes. “They brought it the first two, and we were just holding on,” said Clow. “We knew we needed to bring it in the third.
“If it was 2-1 going into their barn, they would have momentum.”
Pride head coach Luke Beck offered this assessment: “Our kids came ready to play. We had a great first 40 minutes down 2-1, and thought with a little bit of luck, we had had two cross bars and a post, we were right there.
“Unfortunately, for us, we came out in the third a little bit flat, made one mistake and they capitalized on it. From there, we were chasing the game again.
“Against good teams, you can’t chase the game continually, and expect to have success this time of the year.”
CLOW NETS WINNER
Before another big crowd estimated at over 600 fans at Credit Union Centre in Kensington, Clow (1-1) scored the game-winning goal on what he described as a “partial breakaway from the top of the circle” at 7:04 of the second period. The 16-year-old Clow, who lives just up the road from the Kensington arena, credited the work of linemates Reid Peardon and Duncan Picketts.
“Reid made a great breakout pass to Duncan coming up the wall, he cut across, fed me through the middle and I kind of lost it for a second, brought it back in and went five-hole,” explained the son of former junior A, university and senior player Donnie Clow.
The Pride answered right back 11 seconds later with a wrap-around goal by Bradley Campbell to make it 2-1. That was the only shot to beat Wild goaltender Chad Arsenault, who finished with 24 saves.
Arsenault has allowed only four goals on 83 shots for a 1.33 goalsagainst average and .952 save percentage in the first three games.
“Chad Arsenault has been our MVP all year,” said Dunn. “I can’t say enough about him.
“He’s our hardest worker, on and off the ice, he wants to win and he’s a competitor. The guys see that, and they play for him. . .
“He comes up with big saves and he’s calm in the net. Even when we scored to go up 2-0 and they make it 2-1 on a quick bounce-back goal on a quick wrap-around off a broken play, he just shrugs it off and goes from there. There is no panic in his play, our guys see that and feed off that. He’s a great leader in our room.”
THIRD PERIOD
Veteran Bennett MacArthur (1-1) made no mistake on a one-timer from the bottom of the right-wing faceoff circle to make it 3-1 with a short-handed tally at 5:25 of the third period, and Peardon’s deflection goal at 9:22 made it 4-1. A power-play goal by Ethan Beaulieu (1-1) at the 14-minute mark closed out the scoring. The Wild’s Jack Campbell banged home a rebound at 9:39 for the lone goal of the first period.
Clow described Saturday’s game as a character-building win for the Wild.
“It brings us all together, and we had some adversity to fight through,” he added. “We knew it was a sloppy first two periods, and (we had to) just bare down and gut out the win.”