Big second period propels a King Wild 6-3 win Saturday
By Jon Yaneff

The King Wild seem to be clicking at the right time, and they refuse to let up.

The Wild are 9-2-1 in their last 12 games, and the points continue to stack up in the standings with three more this past weekend, thanks to a victory and an overtime loss.

Saturday night, they overcame a 2-0 deficit in the first period by riding the strength of four goals in the first 12 minutes of the second to coast to a 6-3 win over the Espanola Kings.

"If we're not playing the body we're not playing well," said Coach Sheldon Friske after the game. "I just told them in between periods to get back to basics by dumping in the puck and hitting their men, so that results in us flying right away with our goals coming in bunches and we took it from there."

The other story of the game, was the game's first star, goaltender Craig Byford, who stopped 48 of 51 shots on net to pick up the victory.

"Craig's been our number 1 guy all year," said Friske. "He proved his worth again tonight and we're going to ride him through the playoffs."

The goal scoring in the second period started from Keylan Marchant (assisted by Matt Marchese and Jon Adams), then Anthony Simone (assisted by Brandon Beadow) potted a goal to tie the game at two.

Steve Wicklum then gave the Wild the lead with assists from Dan Douglas and Marc Fortin.

Simone sealed the scoring in the second from a one-time shot in front of the net, as Matthew Salituro and Marchese drew the assists. Simone's goal chased Espanola's goalie Mark Wardell from the net, who was then replaced with Shane Buckley at the 11:42 mark of the second period.

The Kings' Brad Watchorn cut the Wild lead down to one and Espanola forward Joey Rosenberg drew an assist on the play. Rosenberg was the game's second star, as he also had their first two goals of the game.

Forteen seconds later, at 12:13, Fortin (assisted by Douglas) regained the twogoal advantage for the Wild as the forward grabbed the puck on a break and put it up high on Buckley.

Then Wicklum, who was the third star of the game, ended the scoring with his second goal of the game, assisted by Douglas, who ended the contest with three helpers.

The Kings outshot the Wild 51-42, but drew more penalties at 14-11.

"We've gotten better with taking less penalties," said Friske. "During our last six or seven games we've had less penalties than the other team and that's produced wins for us, so if we continue to do that, more goals will result in the process."

The Wild now have a 10 point cushion on eighth place in the 13-team Greater Metro Junior A League standings with 34 points, ahead of Espanola with 24.

The Wild performance is very impressive considering Friday's 3-2 loss to the Innisfil Lakers went to overtime, with the Lakers pulling out the victory.

It was a great effort on the Wild's end, as goalie Kyle Parker stopped 47 shots on the night in the loss.

The Wild goals in the game came from Fortin (assisted by Douglas) and Salituro (assisted by Mike Garvie).

Friske said his team have peeked at the perfect time and he hopes they continue to do so come playoff time.

"We started slow at the start of the year, but now everybody's learning the team system and playing together," he said. "Granted we're only in eighth place, but we're not playing like an eighth place team."

The Wild are two points behind the seventh place Richmond Hill Rams and five behind the fifth place Lakers and sixth place South Muskoka Shield, who will be visiting Wild this Saturday night, starting at 8:30 p.m.