Kings defeat Thunder 4-1, enter playoffs on a roll

The Red Deer College Kings Hockey team is playing a solid brand of hockey at the perfect time. Earning 9 of a possible 10 points in the past 5 games, the Kings were a confident group heading into tonight's contest. In the final regular season game, the RDC Kings competed against the Concordia University Thunder Saturday evening at the Penhold Multiplex. Troy Trombley got the start in net for the Kings while Connor Dobberthein got the nod for the Thunder. After the Kings grabbed a lead, they didn't let up and skated to a 4-1 home victory. 

At 7:26 of the 1st period, Tyler Berkholtz scored to give the RDC Kings a 1-0 lead. Defenceman, Tanner Butler and forward Dylan Baer picked up the assists. The Kings fired 12 shots on Dobberthein in the 1st period. Trombley turned aside all 7 shots he faced.

In the 2nd period, RDC continued to press and had most of the play in the Thunder zone. While not overly busy, Trombley made several key saves when called upon. With 2:49 remaining in the middle frame, Scott Ferguson intercepted a Thunder clearing attempt and scored on the blocker side to give the Kings a 2-0 lead on the power play. Dustin Gorgi and David Heath picked up the assists. Over 40 minutes, the Kings outshot the Thunder 24-15.

At 7:06 into the 3rd period, Scott Ferguson scored to give the Kings a 3-0 lead. Ferguson banged home a rebound as his line created traffic around Dobberthein. Trevor Costello and David Heath picked up the helpers. With 6:03 left in the final frame, Concordia's Ian McLellan scored to reduce the Kings' lead 3-1. With Dobberthein pulled, Scott Ferguson found the open net with 1:56 remaining to seal a 4-1 Kings' victory on home ice. Dylan Thudium spotted Ferguson behind the Thunder defenders and hit him with an accurate pass. The Kings outshot the Thunder 17-15 in the 3rd period. RDC finished with 41 shots on goal while Concordia tested Trombley 30 times over 60 minutes.

Blair Mulder was named the Kings player-of-the-game.

Special teams played a large role in the victory. The RDC Kings connected on 1-of-3 power plays and also effectively killed off all 5 of Concordia's opportunities with the extra skater. With the victory, the Kings improve to 30 points in the standings and now prepare for the postseason.

Kings Hockey Head Coach Trevor Keeper has been happy with the play over the last 6 games and knows it comes at an opportune time.

"Coming down the stretch towards playoffs we looked at our last 6 games. With 12 points sitting on the table, we wanted to see how many points we could grab," said Keeper. "We ended up picking up 11 out of 12 points which is really important at any point of the season but heading into the playoffs it's important to have that momentum and confidence. The guys are playing well and hard for each other."

With the regular season complete, the Kings can look towards the postseason and a matchup against the University of Alberta (Augustana) Vikings. 

"I think that we are evenly matched up with Augustana. I think what will be exciting this weekend is how we've been preparing, how we've been playing and because we are having success the guys are buying into that more and more as we go," said Keeper. "The guys' confidence is as high as it's been all season and that's a great way heading into the playoffs."

While the Kings feel confident, they have a few practices this week in preparation for the playoffs.

"We have 4 practices yet. We don't want to have the volume that we've had during the regular season," said Keeper. "We want to have intense, short practices and we are fortunate that we just played Augustana so there won't be any big surprises either way. We just have to out-execute them in a week from now."

The RDC Kings will face the University of Alberta Augustana Vikings in the 1st round of the playoffs. Concordia University will compete against the SAIT Trojans.

The Al Ferchuk Kings Hockey Leadership Awards Scholarship is presented annually to a student-athlete who demonstrates excellent leadership qualities through community, team and or school involvement.   

This year's recipient, Mike Salmon, has a 3.4 GPA, is involved the RDC Captains Council, instructs goaltenders in Red Deer through CanPro and Stable in the Net and is a volunteer with Fox Run Hockey Academy in Sylvan Lake.