For Brendan Arnold, the goal tomorrow is simple and that goal is to keep the Dauphin Kings' season alive. The third-year King is this year's co-captain alongside Riley Shamray.
Tomorrow is when the Kings resume their quarterfinal series with the Swan Valley Stampeders at Credit Union Place. Dauphin must win to extend their campaign.
"It's obviously not going the way we hoped but we still have the chance to get some wins," said Arnold. "I still want to get some wins so I wouldn't count us out yet."
Arnold and the Kings dropped the first three games by a combined score of 16-7. The only lead in the series that Dauphin owned was when they were up 2-0 in game one.
"We really need to tighten up defensively, we need to block shots and just not give them anything offensively," added Arnold. "If we can somehow keep them to fewer than three goals that will definitely give us a better chance at winning."
"They're really good at capitalizing on our mistakes, so we really have to limit making them," he added. "We just really have to take it one game at a time and work our hardest tomorrow."
Tomorrow's game is set for 7:30 as is every remaining game in the series. If you don't have your tickets yet, the box office at Credit Union Place is open right now and will be open beginning at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow until game time.
Prior to this year, Dauphin had not been in the playoffs for four years. This was also Brendan's first ever MJHL playoff series. Regardless of how it goes down, it's been a year to remember for Brendan and the rest of the Kings' organization.
"It's awesome honestly, it's just so different than the regular season," added Arnold. "It's great hockey and I missed playoff hockey."
It also didn't take Brendan long to score his first ever playoff goal. He did so just over four minutes into game one.
"Yeah, that was definitely a really good feeling," said Arnold. "It kind of ruined it because we lost, but it still felt really good."
It doesn't take much to sum up the feeling heading into tomorrow night. "I think this is going to be our best game. It's do or die and no one wants this to end," added Arnold.
