Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
The Kindersley Sr. Klippers have kicked off their season on a winning note on the road. The team will see a lot of action on the road in the next two weeks.
The Klippers won their first game of the season on Nov. 3 in Biggar where the team squeaked out a 4-3 win against a Nationals squad playing its second game on back-to-back nights. The Nationals defeated the Unity Miners on Nov. 2 by a score of 6-3 in Unity.
All signs point to a close game between the Klippers and Nationals, but it did not look that way at first. The Klippers jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period with goals from J.D. Knutson, Landon Longmire and Wyatt Sawchuk. However, the Nationals rallied back with a pair of goals in the second period.
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The teams traded goals in the third period, and they also traded penalties. There were 44 minutes in penalties handed out in the final frame including three 10-minute misconducts, and two of the misconducts went to the Klippers.
Longmire had an interesting night on special teams. The first-year player’s first goal was on the power play, and his second goal in the third came when the team was shorthanded after taking a bench minor for too many men. His shorthanded goal turned out to be the game-winner.
The game ended in regulation. The Klippers fired a total of 40 shots on Nationals goalie Zach Noble and Klippers goalie Luke Sproule faced 35 shots from the Nationals. The team returns to the ice this Friday in Luseland.
Two players are eligible to return on Friday against the Mallards after serving one-game suspensions. Johnny Calkins and Nick Neurauter were suspended at the end of the 2017-18 season, but they have done their time. Veteran Shayne Neigum still has one game left from a two-game suspension.
Matt Glencross, first-year head coach of the Klippers, said the game worked out all right for the team. He noted that it definitely felt like a road game because “it wasn’t pretty, but we got the two points.” He mentioned the team’s quick start in Biggar.
The coach said the opening 20 minutes turned out to be a good road period for the team. The Klippers were up big after one, but the team battled through some adversity the rest of the way. He said one player left due to injury and another player could not play due to equipment trouble, so the team ended up with a short bench.
He noted that the guys played hard to pull out the win. The bench got even shorter in the third period after Jesse Ismond sat for 10 minutes for most of the period and Sawchuk sat out for the final three minutes on the other misconduct.
Glencross said he saw some good things from the team. Sproule played well in net to help the team lock up a win and Longmire showed what he brings to the table with a pair of goals on special teams, he explained. All in all, the team had a strong showing in Biggar.
“The guys worked hard,” the coach said, recognizing that he had to shorten the bench to two lines at the end of the game and the team got contributions from everybody. “We were short. Guys got tired late in the game.”
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