Wild facing Toronto Canada Moose in first play-off round
By Bill Rea

Piero Petti just missed on this shot, while John Sturino and Matt Marchese were cruising in looking for possible rebounds.

It was a mixed weekend for the King Wild.

They drew the leagueleading Bradford Rattlers as their opponents in the final game of the regular season Sunday and fell 4-1.

The good news was the Deseronto Thunder won all three of their matches to take fourth place in the standings, leaving the Toronto Canada Moose in fifth place, in line to face the second-place Wild in the first round of the playoffs.

That was good news for many of those connected with the Wild, since there was the possibility they might have to travel to the Belleville area to face the Thunder in the first round. Or they might have had to journey to Sturgeon Falls to face the West Nipissing Alouettes.

The team put in a solid effort for much of Sunday's outing in Bradford, although they seemed to let up a bit in the third period.

"I was a expecting a little bit more from the guys," commented Assistant Coach Cerrone Natale, who was in charge behind the bench after Head Coach Paul Hampton was injured that morning playing men's hockey in King City.

Marc Zanette was trying to get hold of the puck deep in the Bradford zone in Sunday's match, while Dan Douglas and Mike Bodley looked on.

"We had a dynamite second period," Natale declared, adding his men did okay for about the first five minutes of the third. "Then we just let them take over the game."

The Rattlers were up 2-0 by the end of the first period, which saw them score a short-handed goal.

The Wild did mean business in the second and were dominating play, pulling to within one at about the midway point. Piero Petti converted a Matt Marchese rebound, with Marc Fortin also collecting an assist. But the hosts added another marker in the dying minutes of the frame, then added another in the middle of the third to ice the win.

King has done rather well against the Moose over the regular season, although the club had a rough November, dropping four in a row in the second half of the month, and the Moose were lucky enough to be the opponents in three of those games. The Wild were the victors in the other four matches (including the Sept. 9 outing, which marked the first win in King Wild history), although they needed overtime to do it in one of the games.

"We have to work 60 minutes of the game to beat the Moose, because those boys work hard the whole game," Natale observed, adding staying in for the duration is one of the Wild's weak points. While he said there are a number of individualists on the team, Natale was confident they will be there for the postseason.

"They'll definitely step up," he declared. "I have total faith in the boys. I know personally we can win the whole league, as long as we work hard."

"If our team stays focused and everyone contributes the way they can, we shouldn't have any trouble with the Moose," Hampton commented monday.

The Wild completed their first season of competition in the new Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League with 26 wins in 42 starts. They lost 13 games and another three after regulation time. That gave them 55 points in the standings, 23 back of the rattlers, but three better than the Richmond Hill Rams, who finished third. The Thunder were fourth with 43, followed by the Moose with 41, Alouettes with 39 and the South Muskoka Shield with 12.

Jordan Gidaro led the scoring attack for the club with 37 goals and 18 assists, followed by Dan Douglas with 20 goals and 31 assists and Marc Zanette with 21 and 23.

Craig Byford was the second stingiest goalie in the loop, facing 515 shots and allowing 43 goals. He had a 3.03 goals-against average and save percentage of 91.6 He also notched a shutout.

The series against the Moose actually started last night (Tuesday) in Nobleton, and the results of that match were not known at press time.

The schedule for the rest of the series (as of press time) is today (Wednesday) at Thornhill Community Centre at 7755 Bayview Ave., starting at 2 p.m.; Friday at Nobleton, starting at 8:15 p.m. and the fourth match will be Saturday at Thornhill, starting at 7:30 p.m. A fifth game, if necessary, will be Sunday in King City at 5:45 p.m., the sixth game will be Tuesday in Nobleton at 8:15 p.m. and the seventh game, if required, will be next Wednesday at Thornhill, again starting at 2.