Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - Submitted by Doug Zywina
The Ste. Rose Royals split a pair of home games this past weekend. On Friday, the Royals dropped a 7-5 decision to the league-leading Peguis Juniors. They rebounded to beat the St. Malo Warriors 4-2 on Sunday. Cody Zulyniak had two goals and three assists and Waylon Neault had three goals and one assist to lead Peguis to Friday’s win. Wayne Folster chipped in with two goals and an assist, while Joseph Sutherland had three helpers.
Shane McPherson allowed three goals on 14 shots for Peguis before giving way to backup Cory Nygaard, who earned the win, making 16 saves. Dylan Neault with two, Brendan Laquette, Dean Richard and Jarrett Day scored for the Royals. Deagan Delaurier took the loss, making 47 saves. On Sunday, Mitchell Merry’s second goal of the game with 8:03 left stood up as the winner, as the Royals won their fourth game of the season.
Luke Werbicki added an insurance marker just 14 seconds after Merry put the Royals in front. Dean Richard had the other goal. Brett Hebel and Riley Hunter scored for the Warriors. Connor Bell made 25 saves to record his first win of the season, while Justin Goritz made 26 saves in a losing cause.
Royals coach Bryan Luke is pleased with how his team has been playing of late. “The last five or six games, we’ve been kind of consistent with what we want to get going,” he said. “We’ve been close, and it was due for us. In Arborg (a 6-5 overtime loss, Nov. 23), we had our chances to win that one and it kind of got away from us. We got a win up in OCN and then this game against Peguis, we lost 7-5 and I thought we deserved better. But we’re competing with everybody. It was nice for the guys to get the win today. They definitely earned it.”
Luke feels every team can be beaten. It all comes down to which team comes to play. “And for how long. We’ve had games where we have great periods at a time and then we’ll just have one period where we’re terrible,” he said. “Lately, we’ve been consistent and it’s showing. We’re really competing with everybody.”
There have been games this season where the Royals had two or three goal leads only to lose. Sunday, they were able to hold off the late-game pressure put on by St. Malo to hang on for the win. “It’s big. There were a couple of games where we blew a lead, but it’s just a confidence thing. A two-goal lead is a tough thing to hold on to. You’re playing to not make a mistake and that’s when you’re going to make one,” Luke said.
“We’ve been playing with confidence now and we did some changes here over the last few days. And we’re quite confident in what we have right now and what we’re going to be adding to the piece of the puzzle. So we’re happy with what we’ve got going forward.”
The Royals were to have played the North Winnipeg Satellites, Saturday in Winnipeg, but the game was postponed due to poor road conditions. Getting the extra day of rest benefited the team in Sunday’s game, Luke said. “You don’t like to cancel a game, but we were three-in-three and it gave us a day of rest. It probably did help us. Now we’ve got to try and make up that game, though.”
The Royals traded forward Sonny Bird to the OCN Storm for forward Dennis Dorion and future considerations. Bird had two goals and three assists in six games with Ste. Rose, while Dorion led the Storm in scoring with eight points (four goals and four assists).
Luke also announced he will continue as interim coach for the rest of the season as head coach Jim Platt is done for the season due to an illness.
The Royals host the Norway House North Stars twice this weekend. The two teams hook up on Friday at 7 p.m., then, after the North Stars visit the Satellites, Saturday in Winnipeg, they return to Ste. Rose on Sunday for a 2 p.m. game.
