By Robb Fenton
Just three more wins gets them where they want to be.
After dispatching the Paradise Hill Hawks, the Lloydminster Border Kings are set to face the South East Prairie Thunder - the Manitoba senior champions - to see who advances to the Allan Cup as the West representative.
“It’s another stepping stone on the road. As much as anything it’s going to be a test to see what we’ve actually got this year. We’ve come a long way from the start of the year, but we’re at a point now where we’re going to continue forward or we’re done,” Border Kings captain Corey Dallyn said. “I think Game 1 is going to indicate what the series is going to bring and hopefully we bring our ‘A’ game.”
The best-of-five series kicks off Friday night and while the teams have faced each other in each of the past two seasons, the Kings don’t know a lot about this year’s opponent and what their roster looks like.
“It’s going to be awesome to get going against South East, it’s to go to the Allan Cup and we have a bit of a history with us. They beat us last year, we beat them the year before,” Border Kings veteran forward Adam Creasy said.
Regardless of who suits up for the Thunder, the Border Kings know they will be in tough and will have to contend with a strong lineup, with some talented players.
“We don’t know a whole lot, but if we go on years gone by, we played them two years ago, had a five game series, went to overtime twice, it was a good series,” Dallyn said.
“Last year they lost in overtime to Bentley in the Allan Cup final, so they’re probably going to be the toughest competition we’re going to see outside of Bentley.”
“From the sounds of it and last year, they’re going to bring a lot of scoring, a lot of firepower and a good power play. They will have some talented players, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before,” Creasy said.
“We’ve contended with every team in our league this year, so we’ll be right there with these guys.”
What allowed the Kings to be successful in the Saskatchewan Provincial Series was hard work and doing the little things right and once again, those will be key to advancing to the Allan Cup Tournament.
“I think as much as anything we learned in the last series against Paradise Hill, our strengths were coming off the wall, getting the puck down low in their end and generated a cycle. Off of that we took the puck to the net and created scoring chances,” Dallyn said. “I don’t think we want to stray too far from that and what has been working for us all year.”
Both Dallyn and Creasy, as well as the rest of the team feel the Saskatchewan Series really helped them get into some high tempo, intense games as well as develop things like line combinations and some chemistry on the power play and throughout the lineup.
“It was good to play because we didn’t have that much practice as a whole team. Those are the only real warm ups we’ve had as far as game situations with the new guys, so we needed it,” Creasy said. “It worked out well we had some good ice time all together.”
“Paradise Hill threw everything we could handle at us and we came out on the right end and it worked out. It pushed us to the limit and I was glad to see the team respond like it did. Hopefully that can carry on to the next series,” Dallyn said.
The series kicks off Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and the teams hit the ice five days in a row, if necessary, with all the games starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Centre.
The Allan Cup awaits the winner.