Kings Now Trail 73s, Return Home Monday

It wasn’t the 8-1 blowout the Dresden Kings experienced Tuesday night in Essex, but none the less, the Kings still fell to the Essex 73’s Friday night, putting them down 2 games to 1 in the best of 7 series.

After falling behind 1-0 less than two minutes into the game on a Sean Ducharme goal, Dresden’s Derek Daly responded back to keep the road team in the game. More importantly for the Dresden Kings, was the fact they stayed close in the shots column, trading chances with Essex throughout the game. In the first two games of the series, the Kings were outshot 98-52, while Friday the final shots ended 39-32 in favour of Essex.

Dresden couldn’t crack the scoresheet in the second period, while Essex gained the lead with a powerplay goal by Dan Bacon and an even strength marker from Adam Dunmore.

In the third, rookie Macks Holmes pulled the Kings within one goal, scoring a shorthanded, unassisted goal. Essex however wasn’t done, as Kevin Boggs scored again for the 73’s to put the game away. The final buzzer sounded with a score of 4-2 for Essex.

Both Dresden Kings goal scorers, Holmes and Daly played Minor Hockey in Chatham last season, and were teammates on the Kent Champion Chatham-Kent Secondary School Golden Hawks high school team.

The series will now travel back to Dresden Monday for game 4 of the series. Puck drop is at 7:30.

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