The Charlottetown Bulk Carriers Knights have a chance to take control of the P.E.I. major midget hockey championship series while the Kensington Monaghan Farms Wild is looking to bounce back.
That is the scenario heading into Game 2 of the best-of-seven matchup at MacLauchlan Arena in Charlottetown on Tuesday at 8 p.m. Fans are asked to note the change in start time.
The Knights edged the Wild 2-1 in the opening game of the best-of-seven matchup before a big crowd in Kensington on Saturday night.
“We want to continue to build off (Game 1),” said Knights head coach Luke Beck. “We talked about the old cliché of not getting too high with the highs or too low with the lows.”
The Knights were on the ice preparing for Game 2 on Sunday while the Wild resumed practising Monday night.
“We will change our focus and we want to break our game down into five-minute segments,” said Beck. “It’s something the guys brought to us (coaching staff) and they have focused on that in the second half. Our focus will be to have a good first five minutes in Charlottetown on Tuesday night.”
Although a veteran-laden Wild roster, including 11 third-year players, completed the regular season in second place at 24-11-4 (won-lost-overtime losses) and 22 points ahead of the youthful Knights (12-20-6), Kensington head coach Kyle Dunn welcomes the adversity his team is facing.
“Our message (after Game 1) was nothing was won (Saturday),” said Dunn. “They are one game closer and we still have to win four hockey games.
“Nothing has changed on our part. We just have to keep on playing the way we know how to play.”
Knights goaltender Aiden Williams, who made 28 saves in the series opener, said two strong showings against the first-place Moncton Flyers (34-3-2) late in the regular season boosted Charlottetown’s confidence going into the playoffs.
“We have a strong team and we have been doing pretty well the last couple of weeks and kept the mentality going that we can beat anyone we want, especially after that win over Moncton and an overtime loss against them,” said the 16-year-old Williams following Game 1. “That helped our motivation and we just knew we could do (win Game 1).”
Suspension
The Wild will be without forward Alex Graham, who has been assessed a two-game suspension after he was assessed a roughing major and game misconduct in the second period. Graham was sixth in league scoring with 51 points in 37 regular-season games.
The Wild appealed the major penalty but the ruling was upheld, resulting in the suspension.
“It’s a big loss but we are going with the next-man-up mentality,” said Dunn, who noted forward veteran Dixon MacLeod is questionable for Game 2 after missing Saturday’s game with the flu.
“Dixon is a third-year player who is a leader for us and has been here before,” said Dunn.
Power plays
One area both head coaches are looking to improve on in Game 2 is power-play production. The Wild went 0-for-6 in Game 1 while the Knights were 0-for-5.
“They did a good job on the PK (penalty killing) and we will look at that and maybe make a couple of slight adjustments,” said Beck. “We have full confidence in our group with our skilled guys that are there.
“It’s a matter of getting a little bit more on the same page. That will probably be the biggest area we will try to tweak.”
Dunn said there is no secret formula for what he wants to see on the power play.
“It just starts with hard work, getting pucks to the net, going to the dirty areas and it’s going to be a lot tighter checking,” said Dunn. “It’s not going to be as wide open as the regular season.
“This team is a different hockey team than we saw in November, December, even in February. They believe over there and they are a young team that says, ‘Why not us?’
“We are an older hockey team, more experienced, and we have to put the work boots on and use our experience to bounce back. I’m excited to see what our character is like coming into Tuesday in how we bounce back and what kind of effort we have.”
On the flip side, Beck and Dunn were both pleased with their penalty-killing units and discipline.
“Our PK did an excellent job and full credit to (assistant coaches) Ben MacDonald and Jason (MacDonald), who have worked hard with the PK,” said Beck. “We know they have a good power play over there and our guys did a good job shutting them down.
“It will be a focus for us (for Game 2) and I thought we played with emotion but controlled emotion.
“It’s a sign of a group coming together at the right time.”
Dunn stressed discipline is important to the Wild and understands there is a lot of emotion on both sides when the Wild and Knights get together.
“For a playoff game there was a lot of chirping back and forth between both teams," said Dunn. “We want to play the game 5-on-5 and we don’t want to get into that penalty stuff.”
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