The Dauphin Kings' have once again beaten the Steinbach Pistons and because of it, they're heading to the playoffs.
The 2-1 win gives Dauphin their first playoff berth since the 2013-14 season when they advanced to the RBC Cup.
Dauphin opened up the scoring in the second period off a scrum in front in which Riley Shamray came up clutch again. He found the puck in a crowd and beat Matt Lenz.
With 0:07 left on a power play a little bit later in the period, Dauphin's Bradyn Smelski delivered a perfect pass to Avery Smith on a rush. Smith did the rest and beat Lenz blocker side as Dauphin took a 2-0 lead.
Steinbach did get back in the game later in the period. Tyson McConnell brought the puck into the Kings' zone and took two shots which Ethan Slobodzian saved both. On a third chance, Easton Bennett netted one past Slobodzian with just 50 seconds left in the second to trim the deficit in half.
The Kings' locked it down defensively in the third by only allowing seven shots, all of which Slobodzian turned away.
In the two-game set, the Kings' allowed a combined 51 shots while recording 82 of their own.
"It feels awesome, it was a big two-point night and it feels great to clinch a playoff spot against a team like Steinbach," said Avery Smith who scored the game-winner. "We're excited to see how the rest of the season turns out."
"It's an electric feeling right now, we're just trying to roll with it," he added. "We want to keep rolling so we can go into the playoffs on fire."
The win was Dauphin's 60th point of the season and their 27th win. With Selkirk idle tonight, the Kings' are just four points behind them for fourth place but Selkirk does have three games in hand.
Winnipeg won tonight so Dauphin remains two points ahead of them in sixth place.
Ethan Slobodzian earned his seventh win of the season for Dauphin and as mentioned before, it was his second in as many nights.
"Slobodzian was fantastic all weekend long," said Doug Hedley. "We knew he could play when we picked him up. He won a series in the AJHL last year and it's not easy to win in that league. He's got a lot of confidence and he stopped the pucks that he should."
"We would like some more goals, but we did a fantastic job of controlling the play in the neutral zone," said Hedley. "Our defensive zone has come a long way and guys are communicating a lot more. Things are getting good."
Dauphin returns to the ice on Wednesday as they play the Waywayseecappo Wolverines. That's the next time Kings' hockey returns to 730CKDM with Darnell Duff as the Parkland Source for Sports pregame show hits the airwaves at 7:15 p.m.
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Kolby Johnson suffered a lower-body injury last night and is expected to miss two-three weeks.
