The Kings shutout by the Thunder in game 2, go in to Christmas break with a loss
Edmonton, November 26 – The Red Deer Polytechnic Kings hockey team looked to continue their winning ways tonight and finish off the first half of the season with a win against a very fast Concordia University Thunder roster. Last night, the Kings gave up the opening goal but would score four unanswered to take the 4-1 victory with four different goal-scorers. But that was not the case tonight as they would be shut out 3-0 by the hands of the Thunder.
Just like the game started last night, the Thunder would open the scoring early but not in a way that is not expected to happen. The puck was thrown in front of the net by the home team and as Kings forward Erik Miller tries to clear the puck back into the corner, he mishits it and the puck sneaks between the pads of goaltender Kristian Lyon, who is a Business Administration student at the polytechnic.
This would do it for the scoring in the opening frame and the Thunder would lead the Kings 1-0. Each team had a powerplay, but both were killed off by the opposing team.
The Thunder would extend their lead to with five minutes left to go. The home team broke out of their zone and dumped it into the Kings zone. They would pressure the puck, force a turnover, pass it to the blueline which is where their defenseman shot and got tipped along the way in front of the net past Lyons for the 2-0 lead.
At the end of the second, the Thunder still had their shutout in tact and were outshooting the Kings 24-20.
Concordia was given an early opportunity in the third but as it was trickling near the goal line, one of the Kings defensemen cleared it away from danger and kept the puck out of the net.
Later on, the Kings would kill of a full two minute five-on-three-man advantage which was very important kill at the time if they wanted any chance at making a third period comeback.
Things would get physical after this, and a Thunder player was addressed a match penalty for kneeing and forward Holden Knights (Bachelor of Education) would go down in some pain after what appeared to be a knee-on-knee collision.
But the Kings could not get anything done on this powerplay and the Thunder were able to kill off the five-minute penalty.
The Thunder would seal themselves a 3-0 victory after scoring an empty net goal at 19:34 of the third period.
Defenseman Brennan Davis was named the Kings player of the game with an incredible defensive performance on the back end.
With the Christmas break near, the Kings hockey team will resume action next year January 13 at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre against the University of Alberta-Augustana Vikings. The Vikings and Kings split with each other in the weekend of the 2022-2023 season.