Kings experience both ends of comebacks

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/04/2022 (1436 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VIRDEN – After coming back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the host Southwest Cougars in overtime Thursday, the Thunder Bay Kings were on the opposite end Friday at Tundra Oil and Gas Place.

With their tournament hopes on the line, the Winnipeg Wild scored four unanswered goals to pick up a 4-3 victory and give both teams a 1-1 record heading into the final day of round-robin play at the 2022 Telus Cup Western Regionals in Virden.

“With how well the guys competed and played through the entire game, this makes a loss like this even tougher,” Kings head coach Jeff Ricciardi said. “There were a couple of unlikely bounces that went their way and Winnipeg did a great job of driving to the net.

“That’s the way hockey goes though. Now it’s our job to regroup and control the things that we can control, which is picking up a win against Notre Dame that will hopefully give us a shot at being in the final on Sunday.”

Meanwhile, Wild head coach Paul Krueger was impressed yet again by the Wild’s play with their backs against the wall, which they showed in the Manitoba AAA U18 Hockey League final as they came back from a 2-0 series deficit to beat the Brandon Wheat Kings in five games.

“This is starting to get a little bit ridiculous,” Krueger joked. “I continue to be proud of everything that we are doing to get out of these positions, but I would like to be in a spot where we don’t make things as hard on ourselves.”

“We’re always battling out there and I’m really happy that we were able to get this one,” Wild forward Logan Belton added. “We knew that our tournament was on the line after losing to the (Notre Dame) Hounds in the opener and we were way better in the second half of the game after coming a lot a little flat-footed.”

The Kings return to action against Notre Dame at 12:45 p.m. today, while the Wild face the Cougars in the round-robin finale at 3:45 p.m.

The Hounds and Cougars squared off Friday night. That matchup was in progress at press time.

The top two teams in the round-robin will advance to Sunday’s final at 2 p.m., with the winner earning a spot at the Telus Cup in Okotoks, Alta. from May 16 to 22.

Wild 4 Kings 3

Belton led the charge for the Wild with a goal and two assists, but it was fellow forward Kai Elkie who proved to be the difference maker.

The 17-year-old scored twice in the victory – including the game-winning marker with 3:55 to go as he found a loose puck in the crease and batted it past Kings netminder Keenan Marks.

“Kai is someone that always finds the right spot on the ice and is able to put the puck in the net,” Belton said. “He did that for us a lot this year, especially in the final against Brandon, and he’s doing it again for us this week.”

Blue-liner Blake Jones had two assists for the 1-1 Wild, who also got a goal from Ty Genik and a 33-save performance from Andrew Ness.

Owen Voortman – a draft pick of the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights – potted a pair of goals for the 1-1 Kings.

Captain Josh Lehto rounded out the scoring and Marks turned aside 38 shots.

“We’re more settled in here now, which I think played a big part in our strong start today, but we just didn’t tighten things up enough to stop Winnipeg from coming back,” Ricciardi said.

“All of the teams here are going to be tough no matter who you face and the big focus for us is to make sure that we are doing the little things right. Otherwise, the opponents will take advantage of any small mistake.”

Kings 4 Cougars 3

It was a picture-perfect start for the Cougars Thursday as they rattled off three goals in the opening 23 minutes.

Then things went in the opposite direction.

After cutting the Cougars’ lead to a single goal late in the middle stanza, the Kings tied things up with 2:46 to go in the third period when Luca Ricciardi banged home a rebound by netminder Owen LaRocque.

The Hockey Northwestern Ontario Under-18 AAA champions would complete the comeback at the 3:58 mark of the extra frame as Zach Biniaris found the back of the net to give his team a 4-3 win.

For Cougars head coach Troy Leslie, Thursday’s finish played out in a similar fashion to some of the team’s contests during their league campaign where they would see a third period lead vanish.

“Thunder Bay kept going hard to the net and they stuck around to take advantage of some rebounds,” Leslie said. “That’s what you have to do at this time of the year if you want to win games.

“This was a hard lesson for the guys to learn but we need to put this one behind us and build off of the positives that we had. We were able to get pucks on net right off the hop and we got our power play going, which is going to be huge in a tournament like this.”

The Cougars struck first at the 6:30 mark of the opening frame when Kelowna Rockets draft pick Luke MacKenzie came down the wing and fired a shot that trickled past Kings netminder Nathan Krawchuk.

Southwest struck again a few minutes later on the power play as Luke Robson scored on a long-range shot.

Blue-liner Jesse Brown extended the lead early in the second with a candidate for goal of the tournament, as he sped down the ice and lifted a shot over the glove hand of Krawchuk.

Thunder Bay’s comeback began at the 13:35 mark of the middle stanza when affiliated player Max Leduc converted a feed from Kai Vanska.

E.J. Paddington would cut the lead to a single goal a little later on in the period and the Kings were able to hang around before their late-game heroics.

Biniaris led the way on offence with a goal and an assist, while Brodie McLeod and Keegan Jones both had two-assist performances and Krawchuk stopped 20 shots.

Darren Hunt dished out two helpers in the loss for the Cougars, who received a 40-save outing from LaRocque.

» lpunkari@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @lpunkari