King Wild split their home-and-home series with Richmond Hill
By Bill Rea

The visiting teams dominated last week as the King Wild and Richmond Hill Rams squared off in a hone-and-home series.

The action started last Tuesday in Richmond Hill, and it saw the Wild head home on the high end of a 3- 1 final score.

Marc Fortin handled all of the scoring for his mates, which was impressive, considering Head Coach Paul Hampton reported Fortin's nose was broken late in the first period after being struck by one of his opponents. It was the failure of the referee to call a penalty in that instance that Hampton said led to an altercation that resulted in him being suspended indefinitely for abuse of an official. Hampton said Sunday he wasn't sure what his status was, adding the referee-in-chief for the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League was on vacation. He anticipated hearing something during this week.

Daniel Douglas assisted on two of Fortin's goals, and Brandon Beadow helped out on one. The final marker was an unassisted effort into the empty Richmond Hill net with just seconds remaining in the game.

"We needed that," Hampton remarked after the game, as it broke a twogame losing streak for the club.

But they weren't able to maintain the momentum in Saturday's game at home. In fact, the Wild basically took the first two periods off, and allowed the Rams to build a 6-0 lead. King meant business in the third period, but the damage was already done as Richmond hill prevailed 8-2.

Matthew Salituro and Fortin handled the scorning chores for the local side, with Douglas, Beadow and Derek Long posting assists.

"They came to play in the third," commented Assistant Coach Sheldon Friske, who was behind the bench. He lamented it took a six-goal deficit before the side woke up and started hitting.

The previous week saw the Wild put in two solid efforts, but they only resulted in two notches in the loss column. They pulled their goalie in the late going last Saturday night in hopes of scoring the tying goal, but they ended up surrendering a final marker into their empty net and giving the Deseronto Storm a 4-2 victory. Sunday saw them spot three first-period goals to the Rattlers in Bradford. Things were pretty even the rest of the way, but the damage had already been done and three goal margin was in tack with the 7-4 final score.

Michael Garvie and Salituro handled the scoring duties for the Wild Saturday.

Hampton said he was missing five key men from the line-up, and that's going to leave a heavy burden on any team. "The guys that I did have worked as hard as they could," he remarked.

The team spent a disproportionate amount of last Sunday evening killing penalties, but Hampton thought that was more the work of the officials, rather than his players. "Some of them were pretty crazy calls," he remarked.

Long, Douglas, Salituro and Matt Marchese handled the scoring duties for the side, with Marchese's goal coming late in the game while his mates were killing a penalty.

The Wild will be back in action Friday night, as they travel north for a game against the Espanola Kings, starting at 7:30 p.m. The Kings are slated to return the visit the next night, starting at 8:30 p.m.