The Red Deer College Kings hockey came into their Friday night matchup against the MacEwan University Griffins sitting with a decent record of 4-2 to start their season.
The first period, however, did not look like a team that had one their previous two games. Luckily for the Kings, their neighbor to the north was unable to capitalize on the chances given up by RDC.
It would be the kings that would draw first blood with only four seconds left in the first from when Dylan Thudium notched his 6th of the season on the powerplay. The Kings would go into the second period up 1-0 despite only have six shots on net compared to 13 put up by the Griffins.
The Kings were unable to capitalize on the momentum, as MacEwan forward Brett Smythe managed to beat RDC goaltender Nathan Alalouf within the first minute of the second period.
The Griffins would follow that up when MacEwan forward Taylor Mulder found the back of the neck on a deflection with 9:19 to play.
The Kings would play a hard-hitting style of hockey for the rest of the second, but would unable to beat MacEwan netminder Marc-Olivier Daigle.
The Griffins would go into the deciding frame with all of the momentum up 2-1 with a commanding lead 26-15 shots lead.
The Kings wouldn’t have much fight in them in the third period as the Griffins would come out with three unanswered goals im the third period from Tyler Morrison, Jacob Schofield and a controversial from Nahehko Lamothe that appeared to bounce off the post and out, however the linemen said the puck was on the net.
RDC would show a bit of bounce back when Scott Ferguson found the back of the twine with 1:21 remaining, however Smythe would have the quick answer with a breakaway goal for his second of the game.
“I thought that line(Ferguson’s) played really well tonight,” Kings Coach Trevor Keeper said. “They are usually penalty killers and grinders but they can score and got a powerplay goal tonight. They were our best line reloading, back-checking and keeping possession of the puck.”
The Griffins would finish the game with a commanding 6-2 win.
“Tonight was our worst game of the year in terms of managing the puck,” Keeper said. “We had a real tough time going tape to tape, entering the offensive zone. We had guys standing still after turnovers which led to a lot of odd man rushes the other way.”
The Kings look to quickly bounce back against the same MacEwan team in Edmonton tomorrow night.
“We like playing up there; it is good ice and we have had success up there,” Keeper said. “We have to watch the video and realize what we did wrong and then get back at it real quickly.”
todd.vaughan@reddeerexpress.com
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