High school hockey: Kings miss opportunities in quarterfinal loss to BGHW

BENSENVILLE – An early five-minute major power play that could have been a boon for Kings Hockey Club ended up being the starting point for a night of missed opportunities.

Even though they took a 1-0 lead on the power play, Kings (made up of players from Jacobs, Huntley, Hampshire, Dundee-Crown and Burlington Central high schools) couldn't add to the lead any further and went on to concede the game's next four goals.

BGHW beat the Kings, 4-1, Friday night in the quarterfinals of the Combined Varsity Division of the Amateur Hockey Association Illinois Blackhawks Cup at The Edge Ice Arena. No. 3 seed BGHW, with players from Buffalo Grove, Hersey and Wheeling high schools, advances to face second-seeded Waubonsie in the semifinals Sunday night.

"You go back to the five-minute power play we had, we only got one and we weren't sharp at all in our systems, we didn't run our power play," Kings coach Joseph Fell said. "We start running around, turn it over, and every time it ends up killing 30 to 40 seconds. We got the one, I thought we could've had two and that could have really set the tone.

"The strength of our game is in our forecheck and our speed and maybe it was nerves, maybe it was the magnitude of the game, but we did a lot of standing around, we didn't really pressure their D in their zone the way we should have."

The sixth-seeded Kings (26-22-5) were left ruing a few missed opportunities when they could have taken control. Forward Scott Pfaff hit the post on a rush in the first two minutes. Then came the five-minute power play.

A hit from behind earned BGHW's Kevin Ruane a five-minute major and game misconduct in the first period.

The Kings took the lead with 7:12 left in the first when Jaret Pernice poked in a wide-open rebound from Jonathan Ambrogio's point shot. The go-ahead goal was a lift, but the Kings ended up regretting not getting more from the extended advantage.

"With that five minute, we could have just kept pounding and pounding and pounding," Kings senior forward Nick Madej said. "We needed to get more than one, we knew we needed to get more than one."

BGHW (made up of players from Buffalo Grove, Hersey, and Wheeling High Schools) tied the score in the final second of the first period on a power play of their own. Thomas Jackson got the goal from a scrum in front of the net.

After giving up the buzzer beater to end the first, the Kings played even with BGHW for much of the second, but again surrendered a late goal. This time it was BGHW's Maxwell Diesing on a tight angle shot from the right side, making it 2-1 with 1:12 left in the period.

The Kings started the third period with 1:29 of power play left, but couldn't convert and soon after the Stampede made it 3-1 on a quick rush. William Busby scored with 11:53 left in the third to make it a two-goal lead. With 5:52 left, Nick Iliescu made it 4-1 with another power-play goal for BGHW.

"(Starting the third) it's a one-goal game, we've got a minute and a half of power-play time, that's plenty of time for us. You score, it's 2-2 and it doesn't matter how we got to this point," Fell said. "We have fresh ice, we haven't played our best hockey and I still – those guys have beat us three out of three times now, they're a good team – but I still think we just didn't capitalize on the chances we should've and I think their goalie made big saves when he needed to."

BGHW's Tyler Anzelmo made 24 saves, and Kings goalie Anthony Oleksy stopped 22 shots.