Kindersley goalie Justen Close pays attention to a rebound as Notre Dame Hounds forward Zack Kosteniuk bears down on Close and defenceman Tate Page in a 2-1 Klippers win at home on Saturday.
Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
The Iron Horse Kindersley Klippers are on a three-game winning streak, and one of two road wins came as a result of a 43-save shutout by Justen Close.
All three of the team’s wins over the past week were against divisional opponents including a pair of wins against the Notre Dame Hounds. The Hounds are at the bottom of the Global Ag Risk Solutions division, but the Klippers also beat the top team in their division.
The Humboldt Broncos sit alone atop the division. Kindersley was in Humboldt on Nov. 29 and the Klippers came out with a 2-0 win thanks to Close’s 43-save performance. Kindersley beat the Hounds 4-2 in Wilcox on Nov. 28 and again by a score of 2-1 on Dec. 1 at the West Central Events Centre (WCEC).
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Kindersley had been struggling on the road with a record of 0-4-0-1 over the past five away games prior to last Wednesday’s game against the Hounds in Wilcox, so the back-to-back road wins were just what the doctor ordered.
An undesirable road trip started yesterday in La Ronge against the Ice Wolves. The team is playing back-to-back-to-back games, but last night’s result was unavailable for publication. The Klippers are in Wilcox again tonight, and then they are in Weyburn tomorrow night.
While it is a long and difficult road trip from a travel perspective, the competition is weaker with all three opponents currently under .500 for the season. Kindersley has an overall record of 17-8-2-1 and 37 points as of Tuesday morning to sit tied for second in the division with the Battlefords North Stars.
Tonight’s match up is the team’s third game in eight days against Notre Dame. The goal scorers for Kindersley in the 4-2 win on Nov. 28 were Noah Turanski, Will Van der Sloot, Ty Enns and Austin Nault, who scored an empty net goal.
Nault and Enns each added an assist in the 4-2 win to lead the team with two points on the night. Zach Johnson stopped 22 of 24 shots to pick up the win while the Klippers finished the game with 46 shots. Noah Bankowski, a recent addition to the team, picked up an assist against his former team.
The Klippers have gotten more shots than their opponents most nights, but that was not the case in Humboldt. Close stopped all 43 shots to pick up his first shutout of the season while Kindersley finished the game with 36 shots on net.
Kyle Bosch and Cameron Shorrock, the team’s captain, scored the goals in Humboldt. Enns, who also recorded an assist in the 2-1 win against the Hounds on Saturday, had assists on both goals in Humboldt. Enns, who joined the team on Nov. 17, has nine points (2G, 7A) in only five games.
The goal scorers in the 2-1 win at home on Saturday were Blake Kleiner and Van der Sloot. Kindersley scored in the first period and did not score again until the third period, but the Hounds cut the lead in half with six minutes left. Close shut the door for the rest of the game, and he stopped 27 of 28 shots in the win.
Coach Clayton Jardine said the team has played several close games against Notre Dame, but the team keeps finding a way to beat the Hounds. He noted that he was not too impressed with the team’s overall game after the 2-1 win on Saturday.
He said the team took the Hounds lightly and he was not happy with the team’s overall performance in the win. The guys let Notre Dame stick around in the game and he believes the team could have played better, so it was nice to
escape from the game with a win.
The coach said the Broncos played well on Thursday, but Close stole the show in the shutout win. Jardine said the team played better in the 4-2 win a week ago in Wilcox, but the Hounds goalie stood on his head to keep it close.
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