The Swan Valley Stampeders dropped their fifth straight Saturday night, losing 4-0 to the Dauphin Kings at Credit Union Place.
The Kings dominated the Stampeders over the course of the last four games, outscoring Swan Valley 16 -3 and picking up two shutouts along the way.
Head Coach and General Manager Barry Wolff made two changes to the lineup ahead of Saturday nights game in Dauphin. Emile Pichette’s debut was pushed back and Dylan Black was handed the starting goaltender duties.
The goaltender switch didn’t seem to stop the Dauphin Kings offence as they pushed the play for a good portion of the opening 20 minutes, sending nine shots on net. The Kings opened the scoring on just their fourth shot of the game as Luke Morris beat Black for his seventh of the year at 4:24 of the first. Swan Valley became a bit undisciplined in the latter half of the opening frame taking back-to-back penalties and giving all the momentum they briefly had back to the West Division leaders.
The Stampeders made a goaltending change to start the second period. Black was replaced by Kobe Grant and the Kings jumped all over Swan Valley scoring back-to-back goals (Luke Morris at 0:53 and Nick Braun at 3:03) to go up 3-0. The Stampeders gained a pair of power plays in that second period and had several high quality chances out of the man advantage but couldnt beat Keaton Woolsey.
Nolan Wickham picked up his first of the year at 12:42 of the third period. Woolsey stopped all 18 shots he faced for the shutout and the Dauphin Kings skated to a 4-0 win on home ice.
Final shots on goal
Swan Valley – 18
Dauphin – 36
The Stampeders will have to shake off their last four games and get set for the MJHL Showcase that gets underway in Portage Monday Nov. 22. Swan Valley will play two games Monday (Nov. 22) vs Winkler at 7:30 pm and Tuesday (Nov. 23) vs Selkirk at 1:30 pm. They will finish out a very busy week Friday (Nov. 26) and Saturday (Nov. 27) at home against the Winkler Flyers.