Tuesday, December 11, 2012 - Submitted by Doug Zywina
The Ste. Rose Royals are getting hot.
The Royals swept a weekend home double header over the Norway House North Stars, netting a 10-3 victory on Friday and a 7-5 triumph on Sunday. Ste. Rose has now won three straight games and four of their last five. Going back to a 6-5 overtime loss to Arborg, Nov. 23, the Royals have points in five of their last six contests.
Newcomer Everett Bird led the Royals to the win on Friday, netting two goals and four assists. Dean Richard had two goals and three assists, Jarrett Day had three goals and Bradley Potoroka netted a pair. Riley Johnston chipped in with a goal and two helpers. Connor Bell made 44 saves to earn the win.
Sam McKay Jr., Skylar Tait-Reaume and Austin Ross scored for Norway House, while Sean Bradburn made 42 saves in a losing cause. On Sunday, Potoroka scored three times and had an assist, while Day had two goals and two assists to lead the Royals. Mitchell Merry and Shaquille Houle had the other goals and Deagan Delaurier stopped 53 shots in goal.
Brendan Hart, Brady Keeper, Jonathan Gunn, Ross and Jordan Armstrong scored for the North Stars. Bradburn made 35 saves in the loss. Royals coach Bryan Luke was pleased with the team’s effort in Friday’s win. “I thought we played well. We’re keeping it simple and doing what we need to do. I thought for the most part we controlled the game,” he said.
“(Sunday’s) game on the other hand, I don’t think anything we did, we did right. It was probably the ugliest win of the year. You can get away with it when you’re playing teams like that. But it’s just not acceptable. You’re happy you’re winning, but you don’t accept a game like that.” Luke felt the entire 60 minutes was scrambly and his team was lucky to come away with the win. “We did enough to win and that’s basically all we did,” he said.
“It’s just one of those games we’ve got to learn from, because if we were playing one of the top teams, things could have been a different story.” The Royals moved into sole possession of seventh place in the nine-team league and are just four points behind the St. Malo Warriors.
Luke feels his team is benefitting from the schedule right now, a contrast to earlier in the season. “Personally, I think the schedule favoured some teams earlier in the season. We started 0-8 and we were playing the top teams in the first eight games,” he said. “Now we’re playing against teams equal to us and we’re definitely improving and getting better. Now we’re competing with everybody and we’re making some noise here.”
The Royals were bolstered by the addition of Bird and Matt Gamblin, who signed with the Royals as free agents. Dennis Dorion, who was acquired from the OCN Storm, has yet to play with the Royals due to a suspension. “I think it’s only benefitted our hockey club and made us that much deeper. Hopefully, we can make an addition or two and just improve ourselves that much more,” Luke said.
The Royals have just one game this week, when they host the Storm, Friday at 7 p.m.
