Backed by the solid goaltending of rookie Tate Barnaby, the Dauphin Kings won two of three games in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, last week.
The week began in Waywayseecappo, with a 4-1 loss to the Wolverines, a game in which Barnaby stopped all 19 shots he faced in the final 40 minutes of play.
Making his first start of the season on Friday, the Winnipeg product stopped 21 shots in helping the Kings to a 5-0 victory over the visiting Winnipeg Blues.
On Sunday in Portage, Barnaby, who turns 17, Oct. 18, had another 19 save performance in a 4-0 triumph over the Terriers.
Barnaby currently has a shutout streak of 169:27 and leads the league with a 0.60 goals against average and a .976 save percentage, to go along with his two shutouts.
Dauphin’s record is now even at 3-3-1-0 and they sit in fifth place, three points out of first place.
Kings head coach and general manager Bryan Kromm said Barnaby was lights out in his three games last week.
“For how old he is and for him to be so calm, cool and collected is really remarkable, in my opinion,” he said.
“He’s got a very, very high ceiling. There’s always things that guys need to work on, but he seems to understand the position really, really well. He has a head for it. So I was happy for him, but I can’t say I was necessarily surprised with the outcome when we put him in.”
Kromm liked how the team responded after the loss to the Wolverines.
“I think Wednesday, we didn’t get to our game, really. So I came at the guys pretty hard on Thursday and Wednesday night and to see them respond on Friday and then do it again on Sunday was really, really good for our group,” he said.
The team’s defensive play over the weekend limited the number of opposition shots, something the Kings have been focusing on.
“We’ve been working hard at our D zone coverage and I think a lot of it is just our willingness to block shots. To see the amount of sacrifices, its just an indicator of our team and how close everybody is. They’re willing to put their bodies on the line and play hard defensively for each other. That was nice to see,” Kromm said.
Special teams are slowing improving, with the power play scoring in both games on the weekend, while the penalty kill was perfect in six chances.
Kromm said the first power play unit looked really good on both nights and players are in the right spots and doing the right things on the penalty kill.
“It’s looked a lot better than it did when we first started,” he added.
Kromm made a couple of player moves with local product Jake Myhre and defenceman Beckham Garchinski no longer with the team.
“Jake was tough with him being a local. We just felt like for his development it maybe wasn’t the best situation for him to be with us in the organization,” he said.
“And Beckham ended up not being really a fit for our club, so we’re in the process of trying to move him on somewhere else.”
The Kings continue their six-game road trip, tonight, Oct. 6, with a game in Winkler against the Flyers at 7 p.m.
On Friday, they visit the Titans in Neepawa at 7:30 p.m., then travel further south to Steinbach to face the Pistons, Saturday, at 7 p.m.
Kromm hopes to see the Kings keep their momentum going.
“We’re just taking it one day at a time. We’ll focus on today (Monday) and getting a good practice in today and focus on tomorrow when that comes. And just take it one day at a time and see what happens,” he said.
While some players are banged up, forwards Kurtis Kinoshita and Kale Pratte and defenceman Declan Andrews are expected to return to the team sometime after Thanksgiving.