Curtis Peck showed some great speed, fighting off two Yorkton checkers and finishing off with a great move to open up the scoring Friday night in the Klippers 7-0 rout of the visiting Terriers.
Kevin McBain
of The Clarion
The Kindersley Klippers are on a hot streak.
The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team has won four in a row and the offence really came alive last week.
Austin Nault scored twice in Friday’s game, one on the power play and one shorthanded.
They defeated the Notre Dame Hounds in Wilcox, winning 6-2 on Wednesday. During a weekend set at home against Yorkton, they won 7-0 Friday and followed that up with a 6-3 win Saturday night.
Coach Geoff Grimwood said that the week went well and the team was getting to the net a lot more and getting more shots.
“As a team we have struggled to score at times, and we are okay with that, we can play that type of game,” he said. “But we also have to pick up our goal scoring and it was good last week to get a bunch of goals on the board.”
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On Saturday, Tanner Thompson put the Klippers on the board first, scoring just 1:39 into the game.
The Terriers responded with two quick ones, under three minutes apart near the midway point of the period to take a 2-1 lead. But Cameron Shorrock and Cole Plotnikoff responded for the Klippers to make it 3-2 after 20 minutes of play.
In the second, Nik Malenica and Curtis Peck added to the Klippers lead, making it 5-2. The Terriers would score quickly in the third, on the power play, at the 35 second mark, but Austin Nault would score just over two minutes later to put the exclamation mark on the win.
Zach Johnson picked up the win in net, on a less than busy night, stopping 19 of 22 shots, while the Klippers fired 49 shots on the Terrier goaltender.
In Friday’s shutout win, Justen Close’s third of the season, the Klippers outshot the Terriers 43-27 and were firing on all cylinders, with Austin Nault leading the way. Period scores were 2-0 and 6-0.
In this first game of the week, on the road in Wilcox, the Hounds got on the board first, with a quick goal at the 23-second mark, but Blake Kleiner and Thomas Bollefer made it 2-1 before the end of the period.
The middle frame saw the teams exchange goals, with Keillan Olson scoring for the Klippers.
It was all Kindersley in the third, with Will Van der Sloot scoring twice and Kleiner adding one more.
Shots on goal were 27 apiece.
The Klippers’ special teams had a solid week, scoring six power play goals and one shorthanded marker. Their penalty kill was also solid, allowing two goals in 12 opportunities.
Kindersley’s Jaxson Georget played in Friday night’s game as an affiliate player. He has now played in six games with the club.
Coming up
The Klippers have secured a playoff position and entered the week sitting in seventh place in the league, tied with Notre Dame and one point behind Weyburn.
The team has just five games remaining going into this week. They were in Nipawin last night to take on the first place Hawks. Tonight, they play in Melfort and Thursday, they head to La Ronge. Next Tuesday, they play Battlefords here and then go to North Battleford on Thursday to close out the season.
“This is probably one of the toughest trips of the year, it is not going to be easy, especially having to play Nipawin, the league leaders, right off the top,” said Grimwood. “But we do have to give ourselves a chance and continue to play hard, one game at a time.”
The Klippers could ended up anywhere from sixth to eighth place in the league. If they make it to sixth, they will avoid the dreaded survivor series.
Personnel
• Rookie Will van der Sloot earned the SJHL rookie of the week honours last week with two goals and two assists in three games.
• Josh Fletcher is expected to return to the lineup either Wednesday or Thursday. As well, Devon Cyr has been cleared to play again and may be back in the lineup this week.
• Kindersley’s Damon McKenzie made his Klipper debut Saturday and Kindersley’s Jaxson Georget has earned quite a bit of playing time recently.
“They have been really good, we have had to use our affiliate players on and off and they have done very well,” said Grimwood. “They go out there and are working hard and they are really smart players. It really looks good for the future of our team.”
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