Cody Hodgson brings the puck into the offensive zone and tries to get away from a Notre Dame Hound checker on Saturday night. Hodgson scored the first goal of the game in a 2-1 victory for the Klippers.
Kevin McBain
of The Clarion
The Kindersley Klippers picked up three of a possible four points last week against two very tough Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League opponents.
In their latest game, on Saturday in front of a hometown crowd, they defeated the league-leading Notre Dame Hounds 2-1. And last Tuesday in the Battlefords, they earned a point in a 4-3 shootout loss to the division-leading North Stars.
Assistant coach Larry Wintoneak, said it was a pretty good couple of games and a good month overall.
“I think we played pretty well last week and for the entire month of November,” he said. “It was important to get those three points against division teams.”
He said they were prepared to play a real good team in the Hounds.
“We knew that we were playing a first-place team and that they were very good and the hottest team in the SJHL right now,” said Wintoneak. “We knew we had to stay on top of them and limit their time and space with the puck.
“We did just that and we earned some good opportunities off of the pressure that we put on them,” he added. “We were aggressive, especially on our penalty kill.”
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Cody Hodgson opened the scoring late in the second period with a power-play marker.
The Hounds’ Chance Longjohn scored early in the third on the power-play to even things up.
At the 7:51 mark, Austin Nault scored the winner on a rare penalty shot earned while shorthanded. Wintoneak said he has never seen such a circumstance but that it was a testament to the Klippers’ aggressive penalty kill effort.
Justen Close had a solid game in net again, stopping 34 of 35 shots. Jack Ryan stopped 25 of 27 shots for the Hounds.
In the Battlefords on Tuesday, the first period went by with no scoring, but in the second, Klippers’ leading scorer Tanner Thompson scored just 17 seconds into the period. Eddie May added another at the 7:20 mark of the period for a 2-0 lead.
The North Stars came back with goals from Layne Young on the power play and a shorthanded marker from Levi Kleiboer to tie things up before the end of the period.
In the third, Blake Fennig gave the home side the lead early in the period, but Hodgson replied at the 16:42 mark, scoring on the power-play to send the game into overtime.
After the overtime period failed to settle the game, it was into the shootout. For the Klippers, Hodgson would score, but Jordan Funk wasn’t able to find the back of the net. For the North Stars, MacGregor Sinclair, Young and Chaseton Braid were all able to score to claim the victory.
The Klippers were outshot 44-19.
“We were outshot, yes, but you can’t look at that, you have to look more at the quality of chances that each team has,” said Wintoneak. “Having said that, Justen played real well for us and he is a big reason that we had a chance to pick up a point.”
The Klippers are scheduled to take on La Ronge (5-17) in a neutral site affair today (Wednesday) in their only game of the week. They head out for two games against Notre Dame (Dec. 5, 6) and in Weyburn (Dec. 8, 9), before hosting five straight games against Humboldt (Dec. 12), Nipawin (Dec. 13), Melfort (Dec. 16), and Flin Flon (Dec. 18 and 19).
Notes
• Don’t forget to pick up your 50/50 ticket. Only 1,000 tickets are being sold. They’re available from any board member, player, at the Klippers booth, or call 306-430-8011 to order yours.
The early board draw is set for Dec. 19, where a lucky winner will pick up some Edmonton Oilers tickets. The main draw will take place on Feb. 24, 2018.
• The Dec. 13 game against the Nipawin Hawks will be teddy bear night. Bring your unwrapped, new stuffed animal to the game and it will go to a family in need.
• Klippers head coach Geoff Grimwood will attend the Canada West Camp in Calgary Dec. 1 to 5 as a guest coach. The Canada West team will competed in the World Junior A Challenge from Dec. 10 to 16 in Truro, N.S.
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