Photo: Border Kings' goaltender BJ Boxma will need a big night as the Kings find themselves on the brink of elimination tonight at the Civic Centre. The South East Prairie Thunder have a 2-1 series lead after games on the weekend. – Robb Fenton Photo
By Robb Fenton
There are a lot of questions being asked, but not a lot of answers for the Lloydminster Border Kings.
After posting five goals in the opening game of their interbranch series against the South East Prairie Thunder, the Kings have only managed two in the past two games and found themselves in a do-or-die game last night.
While the defensive side of the game hasn’t been perfect, the team has generated little in the way of offence.
“I don’t know, other than South East finding their legs, I don’t know,” Kings head coach Kent Staniforth said of the difference between the opening game win and the two losses. “It’s just simple little things. When we make a mistake, they’re right there to capitalize on them and we weren’t able to do that to them.”
A prime example of the offensive struggles the Border Kings suffered was the shot totals in Game 3.
While they can be misleading at times, they told the story Sunday night.
The Kings outshot the Thunder 16-7 in the first period, but only managed 10 shots the rest of the game and were outshot 26-10 in 40 minutes.
“We know right from the start we’re not an offensive team. We have to work hard for some breaks, but obviously we haven’t worked hard enough to get enough breaks,” Staniforth said. “You watch their power play, they move the puck around and we chase. We don’t do that on our power play.”
The power play did manage a goal in Game 3, but it has not been a strong point so far in this series for the Border Kings.
It’s one of the most frustrating points the team has had to deal because of their game plan heading in with the man advantage.
“I don’t know how much more simple we want to play. We have just preached about gaining possession in the zone, getting pucks deep, getting to the point and shooting – it can’t get any simpler than that,” he said. “But we want to hang on to the puck a second too long and wait for the shooting lane to be filled. It’s just simple things.”
Every player knows the system they want to run while on the power play, but when the time comes, they don’t seem to execute and that is costing the Kings chances and likely goals.
“It’s frustrating when they are short and taking it to us on special teams. The power play is killing us, not doing the simple things like getting the puck to the net,” Kings forward Kurtis Wandler, who had a number of good scoring chances Sunday, said.
One thing is clear for as long as the Border Kings hang around, their offence has to get going and their best players have to be their best players.
“We just got away from the simple things between Game 1 and then two and three. We have to get the puck in, get it back to the point and crash the net,” Wandler said. “We have to do the simple things, get the puck to the net.”
Game 5 will be played Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Centre if the Kings can muster up a win Monday night, but they are going to need to score some goals to do so.