Morinville Kings continue to dominate NCHL

kings

by Stephen Dafoe

Morinville – Saturday night’s 5-1 win over the visiting Athabasca Aces gave the Morinville Senior AA Kings their third consecutive win this year and their ninth win in the past 10 outings. The club had a two-win weekend that began with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Devon Barons on the road Friday night, their second OT win this season.

The cumulative wins give the Senior AA club an 11-3-0 record this season, two points and one game ahead of the Devon Barons, the North Division’s second-place team. Although the Barons are nipping at the King’s heels, both clubs have a strong lead over the North’s third-place Westlock Warriors who have played 15 of their 28 games and are currently sitting with 16 points. The situation in the South Division is more grim with the Drayton Valley Wildcats sitting with 15 points at the top and the Rocky Rams sitting with seven points at the bottom.

Despite rippling their opponent’s mesh enough to lead their division and the league in wins this season, no single member of the Morinville Kings is sitting in the top slot in terms of goals; however, former Morinville Warrior and Morinville Jet Dalen Paul, who lead his respective leagues in goals during his minor and junior hockey careers in Morinville, is sitting in fifth place with 13 goals this season. King’s backstops Jordan Panasiuk and Curtis Ronaldson hold the one and two spot respectively in Goals Against Averages. Panasiuk is sitting with a 0.21 GAA, Ronaldson holds a 1.56 GAA. The next closest goalie is Tyler Day of the Devon Barons with a 3.81 GAA.
The Kings still have a long road ahead of them on the path to NCHL Playoffs. The Kings have only one game this week, a Jan. 18 road game to take on the Slave Lake Winterhawks. The club is once again on the road Jan. 24 to faceoff against the Drayton Valley Wildcats, then return to home ice Jan. 25 to take on the Edson Ice. The club has another home-ice match Jan. 27, this one another contest against the Wildcats.

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