Photo credit – Pederson Photographic
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The top two teams in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League are down to a best-of-three in the championship series.
The Dauphin Kings bounced back in a massive way on Wednesday night in game four of the finals. Klim Georgiev started off the scoring, Jeriah Shantz capped it off in the third period and Dauphin skated off with a 5-2 win in front of a great crowd at Credit Union Place.
The win means Dauphin avoids going down three games to one; instead, the series is now tied at two games apiece heading into game five.
Following Tuesday’s overtime loss, the Kings came out firing in the first period as Klim Georgiev scored his fourth of the playoffs just 2:24 in. Then just more than six minutes later, Dauphin’s Garrett Hrechka found the back of the net on a shot from the right point as Dauphin took a 2-0 lead. That lead was increased when Mathew Rathbone swatted home a puck in front of the net on the man advantage as Dauphin took a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Steinbach would respond in the second as they scored two straight to trail 3-2 after 40. However, that was as close as the road team would get. Nakodan Greyeyes gave Dauphin some room with his sixth of the playoffs 3:57 into the third and just about nine minutes later, Jeriah Shantz capped off the scoring as Dauphin skated off with the huge win.
Carson Cherepak was back to his old self for Dauphin as he turned away 31 shots in the win. Game five will be played on Friday at the T.G. Smith Centre. The puck drops at 7:30, you can listen to the pregame show with Darnell Duff at 7:00 p.m.
Game six returns to Dauphin on Sunday night.