Jr Kings Ready To Drop The Puck
Dillon Liberty and the Dresden Jr Kings open the 2015-16 regular season tonight at home against Alvinston – Photo by David DeHoey/ CKSN.ca
The Dresden Jr Kings drop the puck on the 2015-16 Great Lakes Junior “C’ regular season tonight. The Kings fire up the new season with their home opener, playing host to the Alvinston Flyers. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30.
THE MATCH-UP – The Kings and Flyers had nearly identical records last season. Alvinston finished in 5th place with a record of 19-17-2-2. Dresden finished in 6th place with a 19-18-2-1 record. The two team’s offence was on par to say the least, with the Kings scoring 141 goals and the Flyers lighting the lamp 142 times. Dresden allowed 161 goals while Alvy allowed 145. While the Flyers lost a tough first-round playoff match-up to Blenheim, Dresden shocked the Jr C loop by knocking out the Lakeshore Canadiens in 7 games before being swept by Essex.
WHO’S GONE – Dresden has said goodbye to last year’s 16-year-old rookie phenom Ross Kreiger who is now wearing a Chatham Maroons sweater, while also missing Jordan Durston who may have played the best hockey of his career in the second half of last year. Austin Bentley and Justin Melo are also gone from the forward corps while the D-line is undergoing a complete re-haul. Dresden will miss last season’s top four D consisting of Jim McKinlay, Dede Cato, Wade Esselment (traded to Wallaceburg) and DJ Sapone. The Kings will also have some new faces between the pipes after losing the duo of Scott Tricker and Daniel Tonietto.
WHO’S BACK – As reported in CKSN.ca’s Jr “C” Season Preview, the Kings remain deep up front with the return of Dillon Liberty, who could build off of last year’s 43 points to have a monster year, alongside longtime Kings Macks Holmes and Taylor Sisson and budding production from Derek Daly, Will Tetzlaf, Derrick VanEvery and Kevin Ritzer. On the back-end, the rugged play of John Montgomery will be a welcome return, especially if some team leadership can come with his play. Aside from Montgomery, Dresden will be relying on young, new faces on the blueline and the possibility of using some forwards on the back-end right out of the gate.
WHO’S NEW – The Kings have made a couple off-season splashes including picking up a veteran forward in Tilbury’s Eric Rivard, signing 16-year-old defenceman Brady Hogg and acquiring former Wallaceburg Lakers starting goaltender Joel Sowinski. Rivard played a couple of seasons for the Wheatley Sharks including a cup of coffee with the Chatham Maroons before playing college hockey last season for the Lambeth Lancers. Sowinski has started 85 games over the last three seasons for the Lakers. Alex Hall hopes to add to a new D corps alongside Montgomery and Hogg while Carter Smith, Brayden Pegg, Dayne Davis and Isaac McLean will vie for ice time. Jake Wilkins has snagged the back-up goaltending job out of the gate. Another interesting ‘new’ face in the line-up is Kyle Dawson. Dawson led LKCS to a high school hockey championship with slick hands stemming from a lacrosse background. Some expect Dawson to be a big time contributor for the Kings.
You can catch tonight’s game with live play-by-play on 99.1 CKXS, streaming live online at ckxsfm.com. You can download their FREE mobile apps for iPhones in the App Store and Androids in the Google Play Store.