Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
The Kindersley Sr. Klippers have earned a bye to the Sask West Hockey League semifinals after falling just short of ending the regular season in first overall.
The team finished the 2018-19 regular season with an overall record of 16-3-1 and 33 points. The Wilkie Outlaws (16-2-2) finished with 34 points, so the Sr. Klippers fell short of the top spot by a single point. The Outlaws have won four consecutive SWHL championships.
Kindersley won its first 15 games of the season before losing four consecutive games, and the team could only manage a single point from a shootout loss over those four games. The Sr. Klippers beat the Outlaws 7-5 in the team’s final game of the season on Feb. 1 in Kindersley, but the win was not enough.
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In four head-to-head games this season, Kindersley had a 3-1 record versus the Outlaws. However, the Sr. Klippers had a 2-2 record versus the Macklin Mohawks and the losses to Macklin late in the season cost them first overall.
Kindersley and Wilkie both earned a bye to the league semifinals. The Mohawks play the Luseland Mallards and the Biggar Nationals play the Unity Miners in the two quarterfinals to see which teams move on to face the Outlaws and the Sr. Klippers. The playoffs start on Friday.
Although the Sr. Klippers have a bye in league playoffs, the team played last night in Senior A provincials action. Kindersley was on the road to play the first game of a best-of-three series versus the Watrous Winterhawks, but the result could not be published due to the Clarion’s Tuesday editorial deadline. Watrous is in Kindersley on Feb. 11 for the second game of the series, and it starts at 8:30 p.m.
Kindersley was a point ahead of Wilkie in the standings after the 7-5 win on Friday, but the Outlaws still had to play the Nationals on Saturday. Kindersley had the tiebreaker over the Outlaws, so Kindersley needed Biggar to win in regulation or overtime to finish in first. The Outlaws clobbered the Nationals 11-0 in Wilkie.
Kyle Donaldson recorded a hat trick on Friday to lead the Sr. Klippers in the win over Wilkie. Jesse Ismond and Johnny Calkins each had four-point nights. Ismond had two goals and two assists while Calkins had one goal and three assists.
Kindersley’s other goal was scored by Shane Neigum on a seeing-eye wrist shot from the point to start a comeback in the third period. Wilkie had 42 shots compared to only 22 shots for Kindersley. Goalie Luke Sproule stopped 37 of 42 shots in the win.
Nine minutes passed in the first period before Donaldson opened the scoring, but it set off a flurry of activity with six goals in under six minutes and the period ended in a 3-3 tie. Wilkie was up 5-4 after 40 minutes, but Kindersley fought back with three goals in the final 20 minutes.
Coach Matt Glencross said turnovers cost the team in the first period of the Wilkie game. The team coughed up the puck in the middle of the ice at its own blue line twice, and both of the turnovers led to goals. One of them was on an Outlaws power play.
He noted that it was the team making mistakes more than it was Wilkie earning the goals. Kindersley outplayed the Outlaws at even strength through 20 minutes, but mistakes were costly and it kept the game close, he said.
Kindersley was up 2-0 at one point, but Glencross said the team got into some penalty trouble and Wilkie capitalized twice on the man advantage. The team came out with a purpose in the third period, and the coach commended players for sticking to the game plan.
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