The Dauphin Kings responded in a big way on Saturday night in Steinbach, taking a 5-1 win over the Pistons to even up the best-of-seven MJHL Championship series at 1-1.
It didn’t take long for the Kings to silence the sold out T.G. Smith Centre after Cordell Coleman beat his man to the outside and wired the puck over the glove of Simon Harkness to give the Kings their first lead of the series just 5:07 into the 1st.
The Pistons would start the 2nd on a powerplay after a late Kings penalty and would waste no time capitalizing. Zach Power found Braden Birnie on the cross-seam pass that would give Birnie his league-leading 10th of the playoffs, tying things up at 1-1 less than a minute into the period.
Not more than six minutes later, Kaden Bryant made a nice cross-seam pass of his own to find Klim Georgiev who would beat Simon Harkness to put the Kings up 2-1.
On an early powerplay in the 3rd, the Kings would extend their lead to 3-1 after Nick Braun tipped in a slick pass from Parker Malchuk through the wickets of Harkness.
Down a pair of goals late in the final twenty minutes, Paul Dyck would pull Simon Harkness to put the extra attacker out for the Pistons but it would be Kings forward, Logan Calder finding the back of the net to give Dauphin a 4-1 lead. Another penalty from the Pistons would send the Kings to the man-advantage where Jayden Harris would extend the Kings lead to 5-1, giving Dauphin a big win on the road in game two.
Series notes: The Kings did a strong job of defending their own zone throughout much of game two and didn’t give the Pistons much to work with. Both teams broke through on the powerplay with the Kings going 2/6 and the Pistons 1/3. The least penalized team of the regular season in the Pistons have now taken six minor penalties in each game.
The series now shifts to Credit Union Place in Dauphin for games three and four on Tuesday/Wednesday.
