Wild back on a roll after splitting previous week's action
By Bill Rea

The King Wild put another notch in their win column Saturday night, although it wasn't their prettiest effort of the year.

They were up against the Nipissing Alouettes, and they were tied 3-3 before going into the third period. King took charge at that point, popping in two unanswered goals for the 5- 3 win.

John Adams, Mike Bodley, Dan Douglas, Jordan Gidaro and Chris Martella handled the scoring chores for the Wild. Derek Long led the way in the assist department with a pair, while singles were notched by Kyle Baulin, Marc Fortin, Ryan Aikins, John Sturino and Piero Petti.

"Our team didn't show up to play," Head Coach Paul Hampton observed after the contest. "We showed up to win."

"There are a lot of steps to winning a game," he added, observing his guys seemed to think they had the match won before they had played it.

"They've got to remember that every team in the league wants to beat us," he said

That win came after a bit of a rough time for the club when they split their two matches.

They dropped just their third match of the campaign last Saturday, falling 6-4 to the Deseronto Thunder, and they were trailing the Bradford Rattlers by two heading into third period of Sunday's contest before springing back to life. They were able to pull even at 3-3 by the end of the frame, played a scoreless five minutes of overtime, then prevailed 3-2 in a shoot out to notch a win.

Referring to the loss, Hampton said he knew they were in for problems at the practice the night before. The previous week had been a heavy one for the team, with four games in as many days, so Hampton went easy on his men and gave them a chance to rest, but they were too lose and relaxed when they showed up Friday night. "We're going to be in trouble up there," he said he warned his guys.

Hampton did observe they came to life with about 10 minutes left in the match, but by then, it was "too little too late."

Brendon Farrugia was a two-goal man for the Wild, and he added an assist. Douglas got a goal and two assists and Kurt Zdrillich got the other marker, Bodley earned two assists and Marc Zanette and Gidaro got one apiece.

The Wild were slow in the early going of Sunday's contest, trailing 3-1 going into the third. Gidaro had put his mates on the board with help from Douglas and goalie Massimo Camin.

But the guys meant business coming out for the third. Gidaro got his second of the night on the power play, with an assist going to Bodley, the Martella converted a wild scramble in front of the Bradford net with a little less than five minutes on the clock, with assists going to Adams and Petti.

The Rattlers turned on the heat at that point, but Camin held firm.

The Wild didn't lack chances to put the match away in the extra frame, as penalties kept Bradford a man short for four of the five minutes.

In the shoot-out, Gidaro, Bodley and Zdrillich connected to seal the win.

Hampton was frowning at the end of the second period, but grinning at the end of the match, commenting he was pleased with the way his guys came back. "We seem to be a team that really needs to believe in themselves," he observed.

The latest standing have the wild in second place in the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League with 18 points, four back of Bradford and one up on the Richmond Hill Rams.

The Wild have a bit of a rest, returning to action Tuesday night, when they host the Rams, starting at 8:30 p.m.