The Sherwood Park Midget AAA Kings lost their scoring touch in a set of shutout losses that cost them their first round playoff show from the Fort Saaskatchewan Rangers. Picture courtesy Target Photography
If the scoring evaporated, so did any possibility of rendering it to March.
The Sherwood Park J. Ennis Midget AAA Kings finished in sixth destination into the Alberta Midget Hockey League’s North Division with an archive of 10-16-6, providing them with the playoff that is final and pitting them up against the top team not to ever make a first-round playoff bye — the third-place Fort Saskatchewan Rangers, who went 15-13-4.
The best-of-five divisional quarter-finals began on script, aided by the Rangers making a 4-1 game 1 triumph.
Nevertheless the Kings flipped that script within the next two games.
The Sherwood squad knotted within the series with a 3-2 victory in the 2nd outing because of objectives by Payton Litke, Josh Parker and Jock Michael after which went up 2-1 into the quarters with a dramatic 5-4 double-overtime success in Game 3 — aided by the glory goal coming from the stick of Evan Waldie.
Tyler Kutschinski scored a set of objectives when it comes to Kings for the reason that competition, with all the other tallies recorded by Thomas Moore and Zac Maxwell.
Regrettably, there is forget about goals found because of the Park players from that point on.
The Rangers pulled straight right back even yet in Game 4 with a slim win that is 1-0 then delivered the Kings packaging when you look at the do-or-die last match with another shutout final Tuesday evening, winning 2-0.
“We had our chances, ” said Kings mind advisor Fran Gow. “We had some looks that are good (but) their goaltender played well. They got some prompt objectives, including a short-handed objective that really hurt. It had been appropriate close to the end regarding the energy play in addition they caught a bounce and had the ability to obtain a breakaway that is short-handed buried it. ”
Scoring shortfalls aside, Gow stated their group went down fighting.
“It had been a series that is tough. It absolutely was back-and-forth. At the conclusion associated with time, we simply couldn’t get the final two games, we arrived up short in scoring. The players competed difficult, but simply couldn’t place the puck into the internet. It had been a series that is hard-fought the people played well. There have been stretches within the games we simply couldn’t discover a way to score once we had a need to by the end. We managed the play, but”
“When you go sugardaddyforme into playoffs you need to raise up your level that is compete and dudes did that. I will be actually pleased with the real means that they elevated their game and directly to the finish the dudes worked impossible. ”
Gow felt the summer season ended up being a success from their metrics that are main which were centered on player development.
“The big image from a development perspective and whether or not we felt the players got better and I believe they did, ” he said for us was looking at it. “We made some huge strides because of the players and their games that are individual. Searching right back from the 12 months, I happened to be really impressed with how the players developed and got better. ”
It absolutely was Gow’s first 12 months as mind advisor during the Midget AAA degree utilizing the Kings following a career that is storied the work bench into the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
The veteran coach has a lot more than 1,000 AJHL games as a mentor on their application, leading the Fort McMurray Oil Barons, Grande Prairie Storm and also the Drayton Valley Thunder.
He’s got won three AJHL championships — two with Fort McMurray and another with Grande Prairie — and even led the Oil Barons to a championship that is national in 2000.
For the couple that is last of, Gow was serving given that VP of Hockey Operations when it comes to AJHL, along with Coach Mentor for Hockey Alberta.