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Sir__Magoo · 02-03-2019, 07:14 PM

Kelowna Knights Knights

Regular Season 30-17-3
2nd round playoff exit, swept by St.Louis Scarecrows

The Knights had a strong regular season finishing 3rd in the league, and with the top power play with a 26% conversion rate. Their top 3 scoring leaders were Nickolas Klaus with 69 points (23 goals, 46 assists), Nolan Sawchuk with 62 points (27 goals, 35 assists), and Sanyi Kocsis 54 points (9 goals, 45 assists). In the regular season they allowed 157 goals against, which was the 3rd highest in the league, but they offset that by scoring a league leading 176 goals. The high scoring team was matched up against the St.Lois Scarecrows for the 2nd round in the playoffs. The Knights dominated the Scarecrows during the regular season, winning the season series 4-0, and out scoring them 21 to 12 during those 4 games.

So what went wrong during the playoffs?

While it looked like the Knights had a good chance to beat the Scarecrows during a 7 game series, and were arguably the favourite going into the series the floor just seemed to fall out form under the Knights. To start their regular season point getter Nickolas Klaus pulled a disappearing act, and mustered up a total of 1 goal, and 0 assists during the 4 games, Nolan Sawchuck seemed to be hiding with Klaus also putting up only 1 goal. Sanyi Kocis was a bit better putting up 3 assists, but it wasn't enough from the top 3. Some of the rookies tried to pick up the slack, as Nathan Explosion put u 3 assists, and Barry Batsback put up 2 goals. Simply put the offensive juggernauts of the regular season just didn't show up. Kelowna only had 1 player that put up more than 1 goal, and that was rookie Barry Batsbak, who scored twice during the 4 games. They needed their goaltender Vivan Leblanc to steal them some games, but she ended up having the same showing as she did in the regular season posting a .878 S%, and a 3.64 GAA, compared to her regular season numbers of .884 S%, and 3.01 GAA.

The blame can't be put on Vivan Leblanc, as she showed up, but the team in front of here did not do a good job at helping her out. They surrendered 138 shots in 4 games. That works out to an average 34 shots a game. The Knights simply didn't do a good job defensively to make up for their lack of offensive pressure. The Knights only mustered 8 goals in the 4 games, and surrendered 15 goals. It was a bad time for the Knights offence to slump, and maybe the break as they waited for the 1st round to wrap up got them off there game.

The Knights are a relatively young team, with 10 rookies on their roster (9 skaters, 1 goalie). This season can still be counted as a success compared to their last season where they earned the 1st overall pick in the entry draft with a record of 18-27-5. They can take this as a learning experience, and grow from it in preparation for next season. They will however have the expectation of showing up next year if they make the playoffs as the excuse of a young team can only go so far.

(570 words)

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