Kings six game winning streak comes to an end with loss to the Ooks

Red Deer, February 2, 2024 – The NAIT Ooks scored six unanswered goals to come back and end the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings' six-game winning streak on Friday night at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre Arena.

The Kings opened the game up with three goals in the opening 20 minutes of play with forward Jacob Wozney (Bachelor of Education) scoring two out of the three with the other goal going to defenceman Tanner Sklaruk (Open Studies). At the end of the period, the Polytechnic outshot the Ooks 14-9.

Forward Holden Knights (Business Certificate) extended the Kings' lead to four with a goal under two minutes into the second. But the Ooks bounced back with three goals with the first two coming seven seconds apart which cut the Polytechnic's lead down to just one. With under a minute to go, defenceman Drae Gardiner (Millwork and Carpentry) made a couple of nifty moves around the defence and finished it between the legs of the Kings goaltender to tie the game up at four. At the end of the middle frame, the shots were all tied up at 24.

Forward Jackson Hassman (Advanced Plumbing Technology) opened the scoring 41 seconds into the third with his second goal of the game to give his team their first lead which ended up being the game-winner for the Ooks in the 6-4 win. He was later named the player of the game with two goals on the night while the Kings award was given to Wozney who also scored twice.

Head Coach Trevor Keeper explained he was really happy with our 4-0 start but the team set back and did not play as a team after the four-goal lead.

"We have a lot of injuries right now. We were not able to play with a full roster tonight. We did a good job of playing connected and keeping things simple. It is human nature when you have a lead to sit back which is exactly what we did. We talked about it in the dressing room and the team knew what we were supposed to do but players started to get disconnected by doing their own thing which led to the Ooks scoring six unanswered goals."

These teams will be back at it tomorrow night in Edmonton for a 6 pm puck drop.