The Kings fall in the final two minutes against the Ooks in Edmonton.

Edmonton, November 18 - It was a matchup of division rivals in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) men's hockey action on Friday night in Edmonton. The Red Deer Polytechnic Kings faced off with the NAIT Ooks for the first time this season and it was quite the matchup between these two teams. The Ooks came off a weekend where they were swept by the Briercrest College Clippers. For the Kings, they enjoyed their bye week with some team competitions in practice but also used the time to recover from some injuries.

It was quite a quick start for the Kings with a goal in the opening minute. The Kings would win the faceoff in the Ooks zone and off the wing, Holden Knights (Bachelor of Education) would shoot a wrist shot near the goal line and it would sneak its way through the pads of the NAIT goaltender.

10 minutes later, the Ooks would tie it up after a slick tic-tac-toe play leaving Kings goaltender Arik Weersink facing two NAIT players on his own.

The Kings would answer once again to take the lead with five minutes left to go in the first period. Defenceman Tyson Janzen would shoot the puck from the blue line where captain Chance Longjohn would one-time the pass out of the air past the Ooks goaltender after the puck rebounded off the boards.

Just about halfway through the second, the Kings extended their lead to 3-1 with a goal from rookie Ryland McNinch. The six-foot-ten rookie would win a 50/50 puck up in the air before firing it home with a wrist shot from the slot.

As the second period ended, the Kings took their 3-1 lead into the final frame.

The Ooks would strike first in the third period with a point shot finding its way into the bottom corner past Weersink. It appeared the Kings goaltender was screened by a NAIT player skating by which blocked his vision, and he could not find the puck.

But the visiting team would answer back to extend their lead back to two. After a nice clearance by the Kings, they would pick up the open puck in the neutral zone and lead a two-on-one down the ice. He would saucer a pass to forward Jacob Wozney (Bachelor of Education Secondary), who would fire it home for his fifth goal of the season.

The Ooks continued to fight and stay in this game with their third goal. It started out a two-on-two but a pass from the Ooks winger opened it up for his teammate. He would find the opening in between the pads of Weersink to put it into the back of the net.

Not long after the Ooks forechecking paid off and would pop one over top of the Kings goaltender as he was scrambling the freeze the puck. It was all tied up at 4 with just over two minutes to go.

Half a minute later, NAIT would take their first lead of the game on a three-on-two, where the forward from Edmonton would fire it home. The Ooks picked up three goals in the matter of two minutes which is where Head Coach Trevor Keeper called a timeout to calm the nerves of the men and see if they can battle back to tie it to force overtime.

But it was the home team coming away with the 5-4 victory in the end. Forward Holden Knights picked up the player of the game for his team.

The Kings will welcome the Ooks in a rematch tomorrow night at 7 pm in Red Deer and will look for some revenge after falling apart in the late stages of the third.