by Stephen Dafoe
Halfway through the 16-game 2019-2020 North Central Hockey League season, the Morinville Senior AA Kings have been unstoppable.
Saturday night saw the Kings take their eighth consecutive win with an 11-3 victory over the visiting Westlock Warriors, a club who is the last team that beat the Kings – back last season.
Above: Kings get their fifth goal of the game earlier in the middle frame.
The home-ice game saw the Kings leading 4-0 after one, and building that lead to 7-3 after two. The final frame saw the Kings putting another four goals past Warriors’ backstop while Kings’ goalie Chase Mudryk kept the Warriors from rippling Morinville’s mesh.
Morinville Kings Jordan Denesuik, Blake Grainger, and Zachary Carr took first, second and third stars of the game, respectively.
Saturday’s win now puts the Kings, who have held first place since the start of the season, six points ahead of the second-place Devon Barons, and eight points ahead of the third-place Westlock Warriors.
“I want to hang the regular season banner in the arena,” Coach Wayne Gatza told Morinville News ahead of Saturday night’s game. “We’ve got the playoff banner and the provincials banner; now I want the regular season banner as well.”
Saturday was the Kings’ last home-ice outing for a while. They head to Red Deer Nov. 23 to face the Rustlers, then head to Fort Saskatchewan on Dec. 1, and Lacombe Dec. 7. The Kings will return to the Landrex Arena at the Morinville Leisure Centre Dec. 14 to face the Bonnyville Pontiacs.
