Kings clip Briercrest College to earn bye

Red Deer, AB - With an opportunity to earn a bye to the semi-finals, the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings were ready to play from the drop of the puck Saturday afternoon.

The Kings had a strong start, scoring four goals in the first period and earning a 6-1 home victory over the Briercrest College Clippers in the final regular season contest.

Kings fifth-year forward Chance Longjohn opened the scored at 11:05 of the first period, beating Clippers netminder Domink Tmej on the stick side. 

One minute later, Sylvan Lake's Hayden Clayton capitalized on a Kings' power play with a deflection.

Moments later, six-foot-three Clayton added his second power play marker of the period to lift the Kings ahead 3-0. The Justice Studies student tipped in a point shot.

With 3.8 seconds remaining in the first period, RDP forward Jacob Wozney charged the net and redirected a pass from Longjohn behind Tmej.

The 4-0 held until 12:54 of the second period. 

Wozney, the North Star Sports Kings Player of the Game, added his second of the afternoon, beating Tmej high on the glove side and providing the Kings a five goal cushion.

Less than two minutes into the third period, the Clippers broke Kings goaltender Arik Weersink's shutout bid on the power play. Campbell Ens fired one high on the glove side to put Briercrest on the board.

Then on a two-on-one, Longjohn set up Wozney to score his 15th of the season and complete the hat trick.

Ens received the Player of the Game recognition for the Clippers.

The Kings went two-for-seven on the power play. The Clippers converted once on four attempts with the extra skater. 

Weersink made 21 saves in the Kings' net (0.955). Tmej turned aside 27 shots (0.818).

The top six teams in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Men's Hockey will qualify for the postseason with the Clippers (17-7) and Kings (15-9) receiving byes to the semi-finals.