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Kings advance to Sutherland
Cup finals
» Driven squad battles back to take must-win game, finishing off round-robin play
BY: MARC MIQUEL HELSEN
When the NHL playoffs got underway, hockey pundits zeroed in on the internecine “bloodbath” taking place in the cities of Calgary and San Jose, as the two physical teams battled to make it through to the second round.
A similar battle is now taking place on the other side of the continent as the Elmira Sugar Kings and the Tecumseh Chiefs duke it out in the Sutherland Cup finals. Making it through the round robin stage, the two teams kicked off the best-of-seven series Friday night in Tecumseh (results were not available by press time).
After flying through the regular season and coasting through the Mid-Western Junior B playoffs, it looks as though the Elmira Sugar Kings have finally found their match in the Chiefs, who put up a fight in the round-robin leading up to the final series.
After losing 6-2 in Tecumseh Apr. 16, and 5-1 in Thorold two days later, the Kings exacted their revenge by edging the Chiefs in a 6-5 nail-biter in Elmira Apr. 19.
“Talk about going through a rollercoaster of emotions: going down 4-2, and coming off the night before where we didn’t play all that well,” exclaimed coach Geoff Haddaway.
After two consecutive blowouts, the Kings, who posted one win (over Thorold) and two losses, needed to defeat Tecumseh in order to win a berth in the next round.
“That would have been a time that some teams would have maybe mailed it in, but, our guys just kept digging and kept playing and came away with some good results,” said Haddaway.
From opening face-off to final buzzer, the Kings and Chiefs waged war in a seesaw, end-to-end hockey game.
Tecumseh’s Justin Hogan drew first blood, converting a Jesse Carter pass at 8:38. The Kings didn’t wait long to reply, though: at 10:16, Brent Freeman scored, with Garrett Rank and Michael Therrien picking up assists.
The Chiefs, however, got the last word before retiring for the first intermission when Ryan Viselli scored on the power play (Travis Ouellette, Justin Smith) to put the visitors up 2-1 at 16:33.
The Kings showed no sign of capitulation.
“I think it fueled us more to want to come back in our own arena,” said defenceman Troy Murray.
Chasing every loose puck and battling hard to stifle the Tecumseh offense, the Kings knew exactly what was on the line. Consequently, Elmira’s Cal Myerscough swooped in on a breakaway early in the second period to tie things up; Trent Brown picked up the helper.
Tecumseh answered back with two goals, courtesy of David Sharpe (Matt Paltridge) and Justin Smith (Matt Rehman) at 6:55 and 9:37 respectively.
Down 4-2, the Kings rallied soon after. Captain John Lunney sparked the comeback when he converted on a Scott Lepold-Brock Zinken pass at 11:36. Jeremy Hilliard, from Rank, added another while Elmira was shorthanded to even things up at 4.
On the penalty kill, the Chiefs subsequently got a shorthander of their own when Drew Palmer (Tom Dowell) pounced on a cough-up in the Elmira zone to beat goalie Dan Morrison and make it 5-4 for the visitors.
That’s how the middle frame ended.
“There was too much at stake to come that close to having a berth in the provincial championship to worry about anything else other than playing hard and if you’re going to get too concerned about the other things I think you’re losing focus of what you should be doing during the game,” Haddaway explained.
“I thought even though they scored a couple power play goals, we stayed away from the penalty box a little bit more. I thought we played a lot more disciplined. We did a good job when we did have penalties, killing them off, so we were able to build some momentum that way.”
Although both teams battled hard for possession of the puck in the third period, the Kings got the jump on the Chiefs with two consecutive goals. Hilliard, from Lunney and Murray, potted his second of the night to tie things up 27 seconds into the final frame. Therrien got the game-winner courtesy of a setup from Rank and Freeman at 5:31.
From that point onwards the Kings continued to press the Chiefs net, and successfully protected the one-goal lead by closing gaps.
Preparing for the final series, the Kings were braced for a tough one.
“I think it will be close. Should be fun,” said Murray.
The Kings take on Tecumseh in game two at the Elmira Arena tomorrow (Sunday). The puck drops at 7 p.m.