The Prince Albert Predators took the game to overtime but lost 11-10 to the Queen City Kings in their first bid to qualify for the Founders’ Cup, a national Junior B Tier 1 tournament.
Ethan Palandri scored the winner for the Kings early in the overtime in front of a packed crowd at the Kinsmen Arena on Friday. Predators head coach Lucas Wells gave credit to his goalie for keeping the Predators in the game.
“If Mason Hawkes wasn’t playing the way he played, I think we would have been a lot worse trouble,” Wells said.
“I think that, for the most part, we didn’t play Predator lacrosse. I don’t feel like we played to
where we normally play and that’s fine. We were playing arguably the best team in the province,” he added.
“I think we’re the best team in the province and I still believe that. I feel like we played at about a 65 to 70 per cent capacity to what we normally play on and we pushed them to overtime,”
In the third period, Queen City came out on a run with Ryan McDonald scoring a pair with Cashton Seaborg and Lundyn Kups adding the other Kings’ goals.
The Predators mounted a comeback late in the third with Caidyn Prediger scoring his hat trick goal with 1:52 remaining and Talon Sandry tied the game with 37 seconds remaining.
After getting back the momentum the Predators mounted their comeback.
“We attacked … and we did the little things right, so it was good,” Wells said.
“Lacrosse is all about runs,” he added.
Wells explained that the Predators were timid about pursuing loose balls, unlike any time since he became coach.
“I don’t know what happened, I think it’s a high-pressure game and it’s a high-pressure situation and you got five or six hundred people in the crowd and it’s loud and it’s boisterous and you’re going to make a mistake and that’s fine,” he explained.
The crowd at the Kinsmen Arena was loud for the entire game.
“But then when you’re scared to make a mistake, you play hesitant, so I think we have to understand that we have nothing to lose and that’s just how we have to play,” Wells said.
The Kings led 2-1 after the first period and the game was tied 6-6 after the second period. In the first period, Braden Shewchuk scored for the Predators. Boston Gelowitz and Ryan McDonald responded for the Kings.
In the second period Matthew Cudmore, Sam Cooper, Hayden Ukriksen and Brayden Reiger scored for the Predators. Jaxson Lenz scored a hat trick for the Kings with Mason Williams adding the other goal.
The two teams will meet in Regina for Game Two with dates yet to be determined.
Wells knows what he wants to see from the Predators.
“I just expect us to come out, come out faster and be a little more aggressive,” he said.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca