The Kings complete the comeback in Calgary, score three unanswered
Calgary, January 20, 2023 – It was a battle for first place as the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings Hockey team traveled down to Calgary to clash with the SAIT Trojans, who were right behind the Kings in the standings before the game started.
The Kings would open the scoring with a slapshot from the blueline shot by defenseman Ty Ettinger (Open Studies) which ended up trickling past the Trojans goaltender.
Later on in the first, the Kings would give up an odd-man rush which resulted in a goal from Trojans forward Kaden Hanas as he one-timed the pass home from his teammate past the sprawling Arik Weersink (Business Administration). But the Kings would take their one-goal lead back with seconds to go in the period. Forward Hayden Clayton (Open Studies) was sent on a partial breakaway and made sure to make the Trojans pay as he wristed the puck past goaltender Boston Bilous (Academic Upgrading) for his seventh goal on the season. At the end of the first, RDP outshot SAIT 15-9.
The Trojans would open the second period scoring after forward Tanner Sidaway was unmarked and fired a point-blank shot on net that found its way past Weersink to tie it at two. SAIT would score their second in a row after the Kings could not get the puck out of their zone. A defenseman from the Trojans fired one in from the point, and forward Carson Welke (Business Administration) found the open puck in the blue paint to take their first lead of the game. Another Welke would add his name to the scoresheet. Trojans McKenzie Welke (Business Administration) turned over the puck in the Kings zone and found himself on a partial break where he would slide the puck in between the pads of Weersink for a 4-2 lead. After an impressive three-goal period for the home team, the Kings still managed to outshoot the Trojans 24-18.
Late in the third period, defense Brennan Davis capitalized on a 4-on-3 powerplay to cut the Trojans lead down to just one. Davis (Justice Studies) was able to one-time a pass from his teammate Erik Miller (Business Administration) to come within one of the Trojans. And in fact, the Kings did just that after a goal in tight quarters from defense Parker Gavlas (Business Certificate) tied it up at four.
This game would need overtime. With just under five minutes left to play forward Jacob Wozney (Bachelor of Education) was able to beat out the Trojans defender and find himself on a breakaway. He would skate into the zone and fire a wrist shot past Bilous to complete the comeback. The final score was 5-4.
The Kings player of the game went to forward Erik Miller.
These two teams will be back at it in Red Deer at 7 pm tomorrow evening.