Kings skate to 5-2 win over Clippers

In an afternoon tilt Saturday, the Red Deer College Kings Hockey team faced off against the Briercrest College Clippers in Saskatchewan. The Kings earned a 2-1 victory Friday evening on a 36 save performance from Troy Trombley who once again started in goal for the RDC Kings. For the Clippers, Dan Dekoning got the call in net for Briercrest College. After the Clippers tied the game 2-2 in the second period, the Kings persevered and scored 3 unanswered goals as they skated to a 5-2 road win.

The Kings struck quickly when Dustin Gorgi scored 57 seconds into the first period. Zak Hicks and Tyler Berkholtz picked up the assists. With 4:29 left in the opening frame, Berkholtz put his Kings up 2-0. Landon Kletke and Tanner Butler assisted on the goal. The RDC Kings peppered Dekoning with 18 shots in the first period while the Clippers had 9 shots on Trombley. 

On the power play, Josiah Friesen of the Clippers narrowed the gap 2-1 at 6:52 into the second period. At 9:11 Briercrest tied the game 2-2 on a shorthanded goal from Ben Feere. Once tied, the Kings pushed back and took a 3-2 lead at 12:22 when Riley Simpson found the back of the net. Kletke picked up his second assist of the game. With only 6 seconds remaining, Kletke picked up his third point of the afternoon and beat Dekoning to give the RDC Kings a 4-2 lead. With another busy period for the Clippers goaltender, the Kings fired 16 shots on goal while Briercrest tested Trombley 12 times.

The third period progressed with no further scoring until the Clippers were on the power play and pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. Shorthanded, Scott Ferguson found the empty net with 25 seconds left and goaltender Troy Trombley picked up the assist. The Kings added 8 more shots in the final frame for a game total of 42. Totalling 6 more shots, Briercrest finished with a 3 period total of 27.

Tyler Berkholtz was chosen as the Kings player-of-the-game and finished with 1 goal and 2 assists.

Head Coach Trevor Keeper was very pleased with the effort this afternoon.

"This was perhaps the most jump that I've seen our guys play with this year so far," said Keeper. "We carried the pace and when Briercrest tied the game up our players kept on and stuck with our game plan."

Keeper thought the Kings adjusted well to the smaller ice surface Saturday.

"We saw improvement and moved the puck more quickly," said Keeper. "We told our players to be aware of where their teammates were on the ice before retrieving the puck, to call for the puck and be there to support it."

In a tough arena to play in, the Kings picked up 4 of a possible 4 points this weekend. With the victory, the RDC Kings have 19 points in 16 games and only trail third place NAIT by 3 points.

At the Penhold Multiplex, the Kings play an exhibition game against the Lacombe Generals Saturday, Dec. 3 at 7:00 p.m. In Lacombe, the same two teams face off Saturday, Dec. 10 at 7:00 p.m. Formerly playing out of Bentley, the Lacombe Generals are a member of the Chinook Hockey League and have won three Allan Cups since 2009 as the top senior amateur men's hockey club in Canada.