After allowing six goals against in the season opener to the Swan Valley Stampeders, Sept. 19, the Dauphin Kings have given up just two goals against in winning their next three games.
The Kings shutout the Stampeders, Sept. 20, before sweeping a home-and-home with the Neepawa Titans, scoring a 4-1 victory, Friday in Neepawa, and completing the sweep with a 2-1 win in Dauphin, Saturday.
Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley said other than the third period of the season opener, the Kings’ goaltenders have played well, noting Justin Perreault picked up his first Manitoba Junior Hockey League win, Saturday.
“Justin Perreault looks like he can play. So I’ll be happy with a 19 and 18 year old and we’re doing well,” he said.
“But we’re moving pucks well in the D-zone. Guys are working hard. We kept them to the outside. This wasn’t our best game tonight, but we found a way to get it done. A win is a win.”
Forwards Ethan Stewart and Cam Jansa missed Saturday’s game due to injuries, resulting in Hedley mixing up the lines. In the third period he reunited the line of Luke Myhre, Quentin Fisk and Kale Pratte, which paid dividends when Fisk scored the game winner with six minutes left.
“We had to do some things with Stewie out and Jansa and Simmer (Havryil Simchuk) is not back yet. We just had to shuffle the lines around with the other guys to give us some balance,” he said.
“But when we put Fisk, Pratte and Myhre back together again, they have chemistry. They work hard together, they communicate, they talk, they’re good friends. They were the best line on the ice in the last two periods.”
Neepawa pulled their goaltender with just over two minutes to go, but never really had any scoring chances due to Dauphin’s pressure on the puck. In fact, the Kings had more scoring chances than the Titans.
That is something the Kings work on in practice, both offensively and defensively.
“When we practice special teams, we do six-on-five faceoffs when we’re down and we do that six-on-five for our point with different offensive faceoffs,” Hedley said.
“But in the D-zone, we like to bring our D back, to have a two-man D and the forward goes on the wall. And we try to just block out and just to get loose pucks, get there first. And it worked good tonight. The biggest thing for us is that we want pressure on the puck by one guy only. One guy goes hard and the other two guys are still high.”
Nicholas Zaharias, Hedley said, was unbelievable with his forecheck, keeping Neepawa hemmed in their own end for 10 to 15 seconds before getting help from his linemates.
“We have to make sure we have full control of the puck when that happens,” he said.
Hedley feels the Kings have done well at locking games down since the championship season in 2022.
“In our one-goal leads or two-goal leads, we’ve really played well. There’s a learning curve there and our guys are starting to buy in,” he said.
The Kings now have a 10-day break between games with the next contest taking place, Oct. 7, when they visit the Stampeders in Swan River at 7 p.m.
In between, the team plans to take part in some team-bonding events. Last week, they took part in some paint ball games at Dauphin Bible Camp and this week, they plan to hit the golf course for a round of golf.
The Kings have been waiting for a release from Hockey Canada for Simchuk. He and Luc Sedawey, a player from Rosemère, Que., who has been practicing with the team for a couple of weeks, should be ready to go when the Kings next hit the ice, as should Stewart and defenceman Brett Magarrell. Jansa is day-to-day with a knee injury.
Hedley still has some decisions to make with 27 players still with the team.
