Photo credit – Pederson Photographic
=====
It was a perfect Easter Sunday for the Dauphin Kings and a perfect weekend as a whole.
After opening their MJHL semifinal with a win on Saturday night, the Kings capped off the weekend with their second straight win in the series and as a result, they now have a 2-0 series lead over the Winkler Flyers.
Mathew Rathbone’s second goal in as many nights in the second period held up as the winner as Dauphin downed Winkler, 3-1 in front of a solid crowd.
For the second straight Dauphin opened up the scoring as Ben Hackl scored a sensational goal with a beautiful shot 6:36 into the first. On the powerplay 10:06 into the second, Justin Svenson found the back of the net on a shot from the point as the game was tied up at one; however, it didn’t stay that way long.
Mathew Rathbone scored just 1:10 later and that goal on the man advantage stood up as the winner as the 20-year-old scored for the second straight night. Kaden Bryant scored into an empty net to seal the game with 12 seconds left and that was it.
In the loss, Dylan Meilun was very good for Winkler, turning away 40 shots while Carson Cherepak was great once again, stopping 17 shots for Dauphin.
Game three in this best-of-seven will take place on Wednesday night from Winkler, game four goes on Thursday.
King Tips:
- Of note, Winkler’s Jayden McCarthy left the game in the first period and he was seen on crutches a short time later, he’s one of Winkler’s top players
- Dauphin scored on the man advantage for the second straight night while their penalty kill continues to perform well as they went 1-for-3 while a man down
- Winkler failed to record 10 shots in a single period, they had five in the first, six in the second and seven in the third
- Dauphin; meanwhile, had 21 in the first, 13 in the second and eight in the third