Wild offer some surprises for Royals in second playoff round
By Bill Rea

The Wild's Matt Marchese added the icing on his four-point night by putting in the fourth and final goal for his mates in the third period of Saturday's contest against the Temiscaming Royals.

When a team faces a club in the playoffs that they have mauled in the regular season, they normally expect an easy time.

The King Wild spent much of the weekend ruining that fantasy for the Temiscaming Royals.

The Wild came out meaning business for Saturday's opening game in the best-ofseven series against the second-place club in the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League, and left the ice at the end on the high side of a 4-2 final. They travelled north Sunday for the second game in the round, and dropped a 5-4 decision in overtime.

"It was a good game," Coach Sheldon Friske commented the following day. "The boys played well, Temiscaming played well, the refs were terrible."

He said the officials were calling excessive penalties on his men, including in the extra frame, while ignoring infractions on the part of the Royals. Friske cited an example when Jon Adams broke away in overtime while helping to kill a penalty, and an opponent hauled him down. The referee didn't call it, arguing Adams took a dive, something Friske said wouldn't happen while a team was short-handed, in overtime on a breakaway.

He added the deciding goal came on the power play.

"It's frustrating for the guys," he lamented. "The second best team in the league, and literally we beat them twice. The refs won that one for them."

He also pointed out the guys came from behind, sending the game into extra time with a goal in the final minute.

Friske also had plenty of praise for the work of net minder Kyle Parker, who "played great again."

Saturday was a splendid outing for the Wild. They had the lead after less than three minutes, and never looked back. The worst point of the game came mid-way through the second period, when they surrendered a short-handed goal. Apart from that, they were in charge for the whole evening.

Derek Long opened the scoring on a screen shot from just inside the blue line, with assists going to Adams and Matt Marchese. Marchese made it 2-0 at the 5;30 mark of the second, assisted by Adams. Anthony Simone restored the two-goal lead with just 11 seconds left in the frame, with help from Adams and Marchese, and then Marchese closed out his four-point night by icing the win at 3:14 of the third, with the assist going to Simone.

The Royals potted a final act of defiance in the final minute.

Friske said the play of his men in the first series against the Douro Duke left something to be desired, but he also thought it served as a wake-up call for them, and that showed Saturday night.

It was also possible that the Royals underestimated their foes.

"We had a bad record against them this year," Friske said, although all three losses came early in the campaign, before the Wild started getting their act together. "It's been a long time since they've seen us."

Several of the players were enthused with the way things were shaping up.

"Nobody's really given us a chance, so coming out with a win is really big," Parker remarked. "It's a daunting task, but we seemed to handle it pretty well."

"Everybody's underestimated us," Marchese added "That's to our advantage."

There are a couple of other positives facing the team as they look to the coming games. Friske said Luke Fortin and Steve Wicklum have both completed their twogame suspensions, and that will enable him to put three lines into the fray.

"It's hard to play 60 minutes with two lines," he observed.

The series was to resume last night (Tuesday) in Temiscaming (results not known at press time). The fourth game of the series will be at Nobleton Arena Friday night, starting at 8:30 p.m., and the fifth match will be Saturday in Temiscaming, starting at 8 p.m. If a sixth game is necessary, it will be a Sunday afternoon contest starting at 2:30 p.m. in Nobleton. If the series goes the distance, it will wrap up next Friday (March 14) in Temiscaming, starting at 8 p.m.