Kings edged by Skip and Vikings

Brent Forster – RDC

Red Deer, AB – The RDC Kings doubled the shots of the University of Alberta Augustana Vikings but couldn't fully solve goaltender Curtis Skip, dropping a close 3-2 home decision. 

After a disappointing loss 24 hours ago, the Vikings wanted to reverse their fortunes and struck for the opening goal. Vikings' captain Evan Warmington skated with the puck behind the Kings' net and scored on a wrap-around behind goaltender Nathan Alalouf at 7:03. The Kings persisted, peppering Curtis Skip with 16 shots and the pressure eventually paid off. With 1:24 remaining, Ryley Smith was quick to capitalize on a puck trickling behind Skip, beating an Augustana defender to the loose puck. Chance Longjohn and Chase Thudium had the assists on the equalizer.

The Vikings went ahead 2-1 off a power play marker at 11:08 of the second. Travis Mayan was stationed in the slot and redirected a point shot into the back of the net.

With over three minutes left in the final frame, Jarod Movde went high on Alalouf's glove side to provide Augustana a two goal edge (3-1). Kings Head Coach Trevor Keeper pulled his netminder for the extra attacker as time was winding down. With 1:21 remaining, Dylan Baer beat Skip on the glove side on the power play as bodies in front took away the goaltender's vision.

Dylan Baer (54) Colby Brochu Photography

"A 3-2 game and we outshot them 38-19. Their goaltender was the first star - how you combat that I guess is to score on him earlier. We had a lot of chances in the first and second period, maybe not urgent enough to put in the back of the net," says Keeper. "Once a goaltender makes some saves and gets rolling, he gets some confidence."

While Skip was solid in net, Augustana tried to take away quality chances in the dying minutes. "It is tough at the end, in the third period, you try to pull the goalie and try to tie it up. The guys defending have it easy. They just have to block shots and work to get loose pucks," says Keeper. "It is hard to do the finer things on offence when you are under pressure and there's a time limit. Tonight it was about scoring earlier and we lost some one-on-one battles where we could of had the puck and opportunities on offence."

Chance Longjohn (20) Colby Brochu Photography

The RDC Kings connected once on the power play but it wasn't as efficient as Saturday's game. "Our power play for the most part has been right at the top of the league and yesterday we had two power play goals. Today, we couldn't get pucks behind their goaltender," says Keeper. "We had a lot of traffic, a lot of shots, but we couldn't finish on our power play. When you have six or seven opportunities, that is the difference in the game."

Ryley Smith as selected as the Kings Player-of-the Game, with a goal. Curtis Skip received the award for the Vikings, making 36 saves (0.947).

It is very tight in the upper half of the standings. Both the Kings and Vikings have 24 points. NAIT and SAIT are tied for second spot with 26 points and MacEwan University leads the pack with 27.

On Friday, January 25, the RDC Kings (11-5-1-1) will tangle with the Concordia University Thunder (3-12-1-1) at 7:00 p.m. in Edmonton.