Kings topple Ooks at home

Brent Forster - RDC

Red Deer, AB – In round two of the battle between the top two teams in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Men's Hockey, the RDC Kings came out on top. The home team trailed in the second period, but dug deep and earned a 4-3 victory at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre.

About midway through the first period, Sylvan Lake's Chase Thudium beat NAIT goaltender Brendan Jensen. Tyler Podgorenko and Dylan Thudium had the assists.

The offence clicked for both teams in the middle stanza with a total of six goals. Within 1:28, NAIT's Jared Legien and Jake Mykitiuk found open space behind Arik Weersink for a 2-1 edge.

Minutes later, Kings defenceman Tyler Podgorenko evened the contest. Captain Scott Ferguson and Dylan Thudium set up the marker.

Jared Legien scored his second of the game, giving NAIT a temporary 3-2 lead.

Kings Head Coach Trevor Keeper noted the importance of his team's composure when trailing.

"We are learning and getting better about not panicking - being poised no matter what happens," he says. "They get a goal, we bounce back."

The Red Deer College Kings applied pressure and were rewarded. Before the end of the period, Chase Thudium and Kyle Salaway struck within minutes, putting the home team up one (4-3). Salaway's shorthanded tally turned out to be the game-winner.

"Kyle Salaway is penalty killing and playing with so much confidence this year," says Keeper. "He had 63 points in his last year of Junior A and tonight shorthanded, he takes the puck down and dangles a guy through the stick, and dekes the goalie and goes backhand shelf."

NAIT pulled Jensen with 34 seconds remaining for the extra skater, but they couldn't find the equalizer. 

Kings goaltender Arik Weersink made 31 saves and Brendan Jensen turned aside 27 shots. 

"It's really important for your goaltenders to make timely saves. Arik made a couple that were at key times and they could have been goals for them," says Keeper. "NAIT has two really good goaltenders. Both have played some pro hockey and it's a battle of being composed and not panicking."

The RDC Kings power play went zero-for-five and the NAIT Ooks were unsuccessful on three opportunities. 

"Our power play didn't score, but we generated a lot of things and want to get better every week so that the next time we play them in the second semester, we are more successful in both games," says Keeper.

The Red Deer College Kings boast the top penalty kill in the league. Chance Longjohn has been a prominent penalty killer for the Kings and Keeper appreciates his contributions.

"We really like the little things that Chance does. He's really hard to take the puck off of and he works really hard to get the puck back," says Keeper.

"This year with the penalty kill, we seem to have more confidence. The guys take pride in their role. I think our penalty kill is 24-for-24 this season so far."

The Kings will look for another 60 minute performance the next time the two teams meet.

"It's going to be a tough series against them all year. We learned from Thursday night that we can't have any sloppy moments. The game was good Thursday. In the stats that we keep, we outperformed them, but they found ways to get goals that we didn't," says Keeper. "We came back and we kind of know more of what they are about. We knew what we had to counter with - little things like being better in the neutral zone. I thought we made it harder for them to get into our end."

Tyler Podgorenko, an Instrumentation Engineering Technician student, was chosen as the Collegiate Sports Medicine Kings Player-of-the-Game. Jared Legien received the honour for the Ooks.

The NAIT Ooks (5-1-0-0) lead the standings with 10 points. The second place Kings have nine.

Next weekend the RDC Kings (4-1-1-0) will play a home-and-home series against the Concordia University Thunder (2-2-1-1). On Friday, November 1, the Kings will challenge the Thunder in Edmonton at 7:00 p.m. 

"Guys are having fun and they like playing with each other and they understand their roles," says Keeper. "They take pride in it. Everyone knows they have an effect on the outcome of the game."