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Kings on the brink

» Wednesday’s loss puts Elmira down 3-0 in Sutherland Cup series

BY: VANESSA MOSS

The Elmira Sugar Kings left Tecumseh with their heads high Wednesday night despite losing 2-1 to the Chiefs in game three of the Sutherland Cup finals.
With his team now down 3-0 in the best-of-seven series, Kings goalie Dan Morrison said he isn’t fazed by the losses because all three could have gone either way.
“We’re still obviously pumped up because we know that every game has been close and every game could potentially be our win. So, we’re just going to keep that attitude and keep the positive and it’s not like this hasn’t happened before: people have come back from 3-0, so we’ll see how it goes.”
Coming off a 5-4 overtime disappointment on Apr. 25 and a 3-1 loss in game two, the Kings will now face a do-or-die battle tomorrow (Saturday) at home in game four.
Morrison said the team will not be making any changes before then, since the guys have been playing well, just failing to finish.
“They’re a quick team, so we’re adjusting; last game we did a good job.”
The Chiefs showed strength right off the bat Wednesday night by outshooting Elmira 13-6 in the first frame. That period also saw both teams rack up the most penalties, but neither capitalized on power play opportunities.
Being pounded by shots (57 to Elmira’s 28) does not mean the Kings are struggling, however, Morrison said.
“Yeah they had a lot of shots, but the way we’re structured is to let me see the puck and let me handle the puck and that usually leads to me getting a lot of shots, so that’s kind of part of our game plan.”
In the second, the attempts evened up at 13 and 11 respectively, but again, no one got on the board.
Finally, 1:10 into the third, D.J. Turner took a pass from Jeff Broderick to put the Chiefs up by one.
Brock Zinken then gave the Kings a chance at 12:26 from John Lunney, leading to overtime.
Elmira battled it out for 12:21 before Tecumseh’s Jesse Carter potted the game winner from Jonathan Hunter and Matt Rehman.
“We came out hard and it was a great game for us and we just couldn’t finish,” Morrison said.
“We could very easily be up in the series, so we’re going to just keep pushing it and stick to our game plan and I’m sure things will turn around for us.”
The Kings are down to the wire tonight (Saturday) in Elmira at 7 p.m.
“I think we’ll come out hard,” Morrison predicted.
“We don’t have any other choice so, we’re just going to go out there and work hard … and hopefully it turns out our way.”

Opening weekend tough on Kings

» Tecumseh jumps out to a 2-0 lead as Sutherland Cup final gets underway; Elmira sees tight battle

BY: MARC MIQUEL HELSEN

The Sugar Kings were looking to regain their mojo this week.
After a successful round-robin run that earned them a berth in the Sutherland Cup finals, the Elmira squad dropped two games in a row to fall behind in the final series against the powerful Tecumseh Chiefs. The Kings lost 5-4 in overtime Apr. 25, then 3-1 on Apr. 27.
Despite the setback, the Kings were pragmatic in their post-game assessment.
“We were obviously disappointed but … it’s not a time to get down or feel sorry for yourself, because no one else is going to. You make a decision that we keep working; we’ve worked hard all year, and we’re going to keep going,” said coach Geoff Haddaway.
“Both games were close. We scored some late goals on Friday night to force overtime. And they scored relatively late in the third on Sunday to go up by two goals, so both games were close. Both games were there for the taking –we just came out on the wrong end of it.”
After their 5-4 overtime loss Apr. 25, the Kings came home to Elmira two days later eager to change the momentum of the series. Outshot 54-39 in the opening game, the Kings came out hard, showering Tecumseh goalie Jonathan Hunter with 44 shots; the Chiefs managed 31 against Elmira’s Dan Morrison.
But the visitors were the first to get on the board, when Justin Smith – from Travis Ouellette and Ryan Viselli – scored on the power play at 7:43.
In the second period, Smith netted his second of the night, converting on a Justin Hogan-Matt Rehman assist at 10:53.
Elmira’s John Lunney narrowed Tecumseh’s lead to 2-1 when he converted a Patrick Shantz pass at 12:33 of the second.
Despite a frantic offensive rush that saw 22 second-period shots directed at Hunter, the Kings were unable to build on Lunney’s accomplishment: Hunter was just too good.
“I thought last game we generated a lot of chances; we maybe ran into a hot goaltender – that’s always a team’s best penalty killer,” said Haddaway.
Pressuring Tecumseh’s solid netminder will be crucial in the upcoming games.
“We were doing a good job on power plays … we were getting the shots but we just weren’t getting those second and third opportunities and we weren’t putting them in the net,” said Lunney.
With 24 shots split evenly between both teams, the third period was ultimately claimed by the Chiefs when Jeff Broderick buried the rubber on an unassisted effort at 5:23.
The Kings were unable to reciprocate the affront and the game ended 3-1 in Tecumseh’s favour.
“Obviously, our power play hasn’t been as sharp as it has been throughout the season; we’ve identified that, and hopefully our next game we’ll have better results there,” said Haddaway.
Before Wednesday’s game in Tecumseh, Lunney underscored the importance of picking up the garbage in the opponent’s crease.
“We want to get a lot of shots on this goalie, keep it to him, because he throws out big rebounds … we were driving the net, it just seemed like that little bounce was just gonna bounce over our stick or we hit a post. But those are all excuses: we gotta start burying,” said the captain.
There were certain positives in the Kings’ performances last weekend. Outshot in the first match, the Kings managed to edge over a typically trigger-happy Tecumseh squad the following day. Also, despite the heated playoff-worthy rivalry now simmering between the two clubs, on Sunday the Kings were able to keep a leash on their tempers, visiting the penalty box just five times compared to the Chiefs’ 12.
“I thought last game there were a lot of good signs, we just weren’t able to capitalize on our chances. If we continue to do those things, we’ll eventually have more success,” said Haddaway.