Shorthanded Lions Fall to Top-Seeded Kings

            The Ambrose Lions looked to put an end to their 3-game skid Saturday night against the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings. It would be a tall order as the Kings sit comfortably in 1^st in their division with a league best 11-1 record. The Kings won the previous matchup against the Lions 3-0.

            The teams remained in lock step for much of the opening set sitting tied at 15-15 with neither team taking more than a 2-point lead up to that point. #5 Noah Verhoef of the Lions and #7 Brody Kopec of the Kings were leading their respective teams. The Kings looked to pull away going ahead 19-16 but the Lions came right back evening it up at 21. After breaking the tie at 23, the Kings would close it out to take the opening set 25-23.

            Looking to even it up the Lions came out strong to start the second set taking an early 4-point lead. Ahead 10-6 Lions #1 Matthew Clement who started in place of the injured Nikita Marchenkov took a ball to the face and had to leave the game for concussion protocol. After the injury the Kings were able to capitalize and take their first lead since 1-0. Despite going down the Lions were able to recover their momentum and regained the lead at 21-20. From there they were able to close it out 25-23 to even the set count 1-1.

            Continuing their back and forth play neither team could pull out ahead to start the third set sitting locked at 10-10. The Kings were the first to put together a run to take a 14-11 lead forcing a Lions timeout. After being down 4 the Lions were able to bring it back to even at 19-19 but they couldn't keep that momentum going as the Kings closed out the set 25-20 to take a 2-1 set lead.

            The Kings were looking to close it out in 4 quickly going ahead 7-1 to open the set. The Lions picked it up, but the Kings kept up the pressure forcing the Lions to use their second time out early by taking a commanding 17-10 lead. The shorthanded Lions couldn't keep up with the pressure from the Kings eventually falling 14-25 and losing the game 3-1.

            Player of the game awards were given to Red Deer Polytechnic's #14 Noah Carlson and Ambrose's #11 Josh Nickel. After dropping their 4^th in a row the Lions need to bounce back quick as they take on the 2^nd seeded Lethbridge College Kodiaks for two of their final three games of the season.