Waugh-hoooo.
Kings' December Player of the Month, Teagan Waugh, had a first star performance on Friday night to lead the Kings past the Express 5-2.
He scored the first goal for the Kings when he took a drop pass from Shinkaruk and fired a low shot to Devji's glove side at 11:35.
Kings went up 2-0 when Andrew Pettitt was allowed to walk out from the corner where he too, slid the puck along the ice that went five hole on Devji at 14:27.
Express got one back on a bad break for Sean Maguire when Petan sent a pass across the top of the crease but the puck deflected in off a skate to pull the Express to 2-1 at the end of the first period.
They tied the game 2-2 early in the second when Jason Yee turned the puck over to McKinney who whipped it over to Straight for the one timer to beat Maguire.
Niddery got the lead back at 6:18 when Garbowsky was tripped and on the delay passed the puck to 21 who got a shot through from a bad angle that beat Devji.
Kings too the 3-2 lead into the third and added to it on a gorgeous shot by Shinkaruk from the faceoff circle that found the top corner and then Cohen Adair scored on a rebound at 12:20 to make the final 5-2.
Kings outshot their opponent by a hefty margin of 44-16 and without Devji, the score might have been higher but with the skill level what it was coach Kent Lewis was comfortable with the victory.
“It was one of those games for us,” he said, “where we just went through the motions for the most part.”
“We did what we had to do down the stretch and I thought we responded when we had to.”
“It wasn't great tonight but it was good enough.”
What was great is that over 800 fans came to the game and the Kings responded by saluting those fans after the game.
Kings are off for a week now until Surrey comes in on Friday January 14 but there is sure to be lots of activity on the trade front this weekend. Several contenders will be looking to for a player to help them go deeper in the playoffs however the Kings have depth, defence and great goaltending and are sitting pretty good.
“Take a look at my track record on Jan 10,” said Lewis when asked about possible moves, “it's not very busy.”
“And why would it be, I've got a great bunch of kids.”
Ron Armitage Mens Wear Three Stars:
1. Teagan Waugh
2. Carter Shinkaruk
3. Cohen Adair
