Midget Kings go to game seven on Saturday

The Prestige Contractors Midget Kings and Port Hope Phantoms are deadlocked at six points each in their playdown series after each team took a game over the weekend.  The Kings will host game seven at 6p.m. in Picton on Saturday.

Last Saturday night the Kings were home in Picton and after a scoreless first period, Jake Staley put home a feed from Scott McQuaid and Bob Wilson at 9:50 of the second frame to open the scoring.  The visitors answered back with two of their own before Seth VanVlack scored on a nice breakaway pass from Tyler Philip to tie things up before the flood.  The Kings gave Port Hope some good scoring chances in period three and had to rely on solid goaltending from Brad Wells to maintain the two-all tie at the end of regulation time.  This meant another OT finish but the home squad and their fans were stunned when the Phantoms scored just 1:31 in to take the 3-2 win and 3-2 series lead.

On Sunday the Kings travelled to Port Hope knowing that a loss would put an end to their season and it showed as the boys came out with lots of jump.  They put sustained pressure on the Phantoms net but after the referee inexplicably failed to call the home team for tackling a Kings winger on a break, Port Hope took the puck the other way and opened the scoring at 9:42 of the first.  Undeterred by more bizarre officiating, the Kings continued to work hard and it paid off when Philip scored with help from Robert Stapley and VanVlack to tie things at one just before the intermission.  Port Hope came out strong in the final frame and Alex Ward was sharp in the Kings cage as he faced a barrage of shots, many through heavy traffic.  The turning point came with less than three minutes left in regulation time when the Phantoms took a tripping penalty.  The Kings power play went to work and with 1:56 on the clock Philip banged home a Stapley rebound to give the road crew a 2-1 lead that held up until the final buzzer.

The Kings host game seven at 6p.m. in Picton on Saturday.