King Wild stopped at the finals in their first season
King Wild By Bill Rea

Head Coach Paul Hampton believes his men deserved a better fate, and he's probably right.

But they have to settle for what they were served, and that was making it only as far as the finals in the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League in its opening year.

The best-of-seven final series ended Sunday night, with the hosting Bradford Rattlers taking the hardware after a 4-3 over-time victory in the fifth game.

Although the series was short, it featured some close matches. Three of the games were settled by one goal (two in overtime) and the two teams each posted one decisive win.

The decisive match was almost symbolic of the series, with the Rattlers taking the early lead, but the Wild staying right on their heels, repeatedly tying the score.

Bradford was ahead by one after the opening period Sunday night, but Kurt Zdrillich picked up a lose puck in front of the net after Piero Petti rattled a shot off the glass, and put it home to tie the score about midway through the second. Marc Zanette also drew an assist on the play.

The Rattlers went ahead again on a power-play marker, but Ryan Williamson evened things again before the frame was history by lobbing a shot from the blue line that fooled goalie Andreas Goetz.

King enjoyed a couple of two-man advantages in the third, and Zanette capitalized on one of them, with help from Mike Bodley and Sean Pollard, but that lead only lasted three minutes. Bradford scored another power-play marker, although Hampton maintained the play was offside by about five feet.

The extra frame lasted a little more than five minutes, as the Rattlers connected while the Cougars were killing a penalty.

"I thought we played well enough to win," the coach commented later. "I certainly think the world of the kids. They worked really hard tonight."

The series opened last Tuesday in Bradford, with the hosts coming out on top of a 2-1 final. Matt Marchese collected the goal for the side, assisted by Jordan Gidaro.

Hampton later suggested his men might have gone into that match expecting to lose, but they were able to step up their play late in the action, as the "realization set in these other guys are human, just like us."

It was a very different story for the second game Thursday night in Bradford. The Wild came storming out clearly meaning business, and they were in charge for just about the whole match, eventually winning 6-3.

The guys took a 2-0 lead in the first period, then had a three-minute let-down in the second, during which Bradford tied things up. But that was the last time the Rattlers were close to taking over the game, as a one-goal lead was restored by the end of the frame.

Bodley led the scoring attack with three goals and an assist, and Brendon Farrugia, Pollard and Dan Douglas each got a goal and an assist. Zdrillich helped out on three of the markers, and single assists were notched by Derek Long, Zanette, Petti and John Adams.

"I think we just hit everything we saw, and it slowed them down," a jubilant Bodley commented after the game. "They're a good team. We knew we just had to be on our game."

Friday night was an evening the Wild would probably prefer to forget. The team played well in the first and third periods, but the four unanswered goals they allowed in the second created a hard hole for them to climb out of. Bradford took the match 5-0.

"Sometimes the wheels fall off the cart, and they fell off tonight," Hampton commented later.

The team was able to get the wheels back on the cart for Saturday's game in Nobleton, and they came out flying.

Bodley opened the scoring after just 16 seconds, with help from Zanette, but Bradford tied the score late in the frame, with some inadvertent help from one of the linesmen. He got in the way of a Wild clearing pass, and the resulting lose puck was pounced upon by the other side.

The rest of the game was scoreless, until the Rattlers connected with 5:34 gone in extra time.

"We'll be back next year," club president Naz Marchese commented Sunday night outside the Wild dressing room after congratulating the players. "I think that our goals was to put as many King kids on the team and we did that with 10 King kids."

"The team grew in the community," he added. "We started getting a following, which is nice."