GOULDS Brady Griffin-Hefford had a two-goal performance and Daniel McCarthy recorded his second shutout of the series as the Colemans Western Kings downed the St. John’s Privateers 4-0 Sunday morning to capture its first provincial major midget hockey league crown since the 1996-97 season.
The victory enabled the Kings to wrap up the Newfoundland and Labrador Major Midget Hockey League best-of-seven final showdown in five games. The two teams were deadlocked at one game apiece heading into the weekend, but the Kings racked up three-straight wins — 7-4 Friday night and 5-1 Saturday night — to claim the crown on the road.
Derian Gould, a physical force for the Kings throughout the playoff run, and Josh Taylor — who scored his share of big goals down the stretch and also did an admirable job of shadowing Cody Drover of the Central Ice Pak in a first-round matchup that went seven games — also dented the twine Sunday at the Goulds Arena.
The following is a look at who starred for the Kings in the other weekend games played at Goulds Arena:
Kings 5, Privateers 1
Ian Skinner scored the eventual game-winning goal at 2:44 of the middle stanza in Game 4 Saturday night to give the Kings a 3-1 stranglehold on the best-of-seven affair.
Neil Woolfrey, Jordan King, Lucas McKay and Jordan Richards, who scored the winning goal in Game 2 of the series two weeks ago in Corner Brook, rounded out the scoring parade for the Kings.
Shayne Kavanagh was the lone marksman for the Privateers, beating Kings puckstopper Daniel McCarthy with a nifty deke just 89 seconds into the contest.
McCarthy stopped 26 shots to pick up the goaltending win over counterpart Mitchell Puddester who stopped 44 of 49 shots directed toward his cage.
Kings 7, Privateers 4
Neil Woolfrey continued his consistent offensive punch for the Kings with a two-goal game as the Kings took charge of the series with a 7-4 victory in Game 3 Friday night at Goulds Arena.
The Kings, who held a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes of hockey, also had goals from Peter Boland, David Alexander, Jordan King, Jordan Richards and power forward David Budgell who has been a physical presence throughout the playoff run as the Kings remained focused on bringing the provincial crown back to the west coast.
Matthew Caines, Peter Kavanagh, Ben Cleary and Stephen LeDrew lit the lamp for the defending champion Privateers.
McCarthy picked up the goaltending win with a 32-save performance for the Kings.
Puddester suffered the loss, stopping 11 of 16 shots he faced, before being replaced in the crease by Chris Smith, who stopped 15 of 17 scoring chances thrown at him by the Kings in the later stages of the contest.
