Wild split last two games of season, now face Douro in first round of playoffs
By Jon Yaneff

Anthony Simone was breaking out of his end Saturday night

The King Wild ended the regular season in eighth place in the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League

GMHL) after splitting their two weekend games.

They will now face the Douro Dukes in the first round of the playoffs.

Saturday night saw the Wild being able to outlast half-hearted officiating to squeak past the Espanola Kings 6-5 in a spirited affair in King. They hung on, despite finding themselves shorthanded during the last six minutes of the game.

"That's the way it goes sometimes and you can't control what they do," said Wild Coach Sheldon Friske of the officiating after the game. "But, we were undisciplined and we're happy to get the two points."

After Espanola took the early one-goal lead on a goal from Mikita Fox (assisted by Phil Corbiere), the Wild went to work, scoring four times to take a 4-1 lead going into the second period.

King tied the game on a short-handed goal from Dan Douglas (assisted by Marc Fortin), where the forward sped in on a breakaway and shelved the puck up high on Espanola goaltender Shane Buckley.

Wild forward Matt Marchese puts the puck past Espanola Kings goaltender Shane Buckley during Saturday's 6-5 win.

Matt Marchese (shorthanded), Anthony Simone (assisted by Brandon Beadow and Marchese) and David Manning (assisted by Marchese and Simone) had the other goals in the period for the Wild.

It didn't take long for Espanola to mount a comeback as five seconds into the second period Espanola's Joey Rosenberg (assisted by Balazs Deifik) beat Wild goalie Craig Byford.

In between two more Espanola goals, Wild forward Steve Wicklum scored on a two-on-one with Keylan Marchant (also assisted by Chris Martella), as the Wild took a slim 5-4 lead into the third.

Daniel Aubut (assisted by Zane Pitawanakwat and Clancy McNeil) and Dustin Grant (assisted by Zack Bayer and Brandon McGregor) were the goal scorers for Espanola.

In the second period an altercation occurred where Manning shot the puck down the ice near Espanola's bench, and one of their guys hit him which forced Manning's stick to clip a Kings' player on the bench. Manning got a highsticking penalty, although his actions were unintentional, which proves the referees weren't always aware of the play in this game.

Simone (assisted by Michael Garvey) increased the Wild lead to two again, but the crafty Rosenberg (assisted by McNeil) made the game tighter toward the end. With Simone and Rosenberg's two goals each, they were awarded first and second stars of the game respectively. Marchant was the third star of the contest.

King out shot Espanola 41-32 in the game, as Byford made 27 saves to Buckley's 35.

Espanola's Chris Shawanda (two of two), Tyler Ryan (two of two) and Ryan Laroque (two of four) were all serving suspensions in the game.

Fortin had a cross-checking penalty late in the third that gave him five minutes and a game misconduct, and because of the call he was suspended for Sunday's game in Bradford, as well as the first game of the Douro series.

Sunday's game in Bradford was a different story, as the shots slightly favoured the Rattlers, 37-32, but the outcome was a 9-2 win for the Wild's foes.

Byford was replaced with Kyle Parker after the sixth Bradford goal to finish the game.

Jon Adams scored both Wild goals with Marchese assisting on both. Marchese has nine points in his last three games (three goals and six assists).

The Wild (20-20-2 for 42 points) finish in eighth place had them one-point behind the South Muskoka Shield (19-18-5) for seventh place, who had 43 points.

After the owners had its first round playoff selection draft the matches looked like this: The first-place Rattlers versus the 11th place Toronto Canada Moose, the second-place Temiscaming Royals versus the ninth place Kings, the fourth-place Deseronto Storm against the 10th place Tamworth Cyclones and the fifth-place Elliot Lake Bobcats playing the 12th place Nipissing Alouettes.

The third-place Innisfil Lakers, the sixth-place Richmond Hill Rams and the Shield all received first round byes.

The King-Douro series commences this Friday with a game at York University (it will be considerd a home game for the Wild, owing to the lack of available ice at King City or Nobleton). This match will start at 7:30 p.m. The second game will be in King City Saturday, starting at 8:30 p.m. The third match will be in Douro Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

"The playoffs are always a fun time and we get revved up for them," said secondyear forward Marchese. "Everyone always has playoff beards or Mohawks and the results mean we're really competitive."

Last season the Wild lost in the GMHL finals against Bradford, four games to one.