Senior Klippers have Unity on the ropes

By Jordan Parker

The Senior Kindersley Klippers are up two games to none in their best-of-five playoff series against Unity Miners in the Saskatchewan Western Hockey League.

After a 5-1 drubbing on February 4, the Klippers then had to battle it out on Saturday. Just skating by at 6-5.

The Klippers were down 5-1 midway through the second period before an incredible comeback, during which they scored five consecutive unanswered goals.

Head Coach Chris Forsman is happy the team is doing well, but wasn’t fully enthused about the entire second game.

“We had one really good game, and half a game when we were good. We got lucky,” he said. “I’m feeling good about the team overall though.”

He says there are a number of reasons Unity may have been harder to face on Saturday.

“The team has two really great goalies, and they got back some guys they didn’t have during game one,” he said.

“They’re dangerous with all their players and their goalies were playing very well. We had a slow start, and we were on the road. The first period wasn’t our best.”

He says the coaches, manager Brady Newmeyer, and trainers and scouts allow the team to do well.

“We’re pretty lucky. We have some really talented players. We’re in a good league though, and all the teams have potential to do well,” he said. “Kerrobert finished last in the league, but recently played a provincial game and almost beat the Kyle team.”

Player Kyle Donaldson has racked up two goals and two assists during the playoffs series, and just wants the trend to continue for the Senior Klippers.

“We’ve been extra hot lately, and that was so good going into the playoffs. We have a couple good, young guys and it’s been helpful,” he said.

“It took a while to get used to the lines, but we’re really clicking now. We’re playing good hockey and our goaltending was been really great.”

He says the team began to figure out how to combat Unity about halfway through Saturday’s game.

“We managed to stay alive during the first half, but they were just playing really well. It was a huge test for us,” he said.

“The team had to adjust to them coming out of the gate hot. We got a great game from our goaltender too.”

He said the team realized they had more in them, and pushed to turn things around.

“We knew what we had to do, and we took that upon ourselves. We had to push to get ourselves back,” he said.

As they get ready to head to Unity on Friday, they’re preparing to sweep the team and move forward.

“We can get to the next round. We just need to keep doing what we’re doing,” said Donaldson. “The last seven-or-eight games have gone well. We need to come out hot and play our game.”

The Klippers are set to play Unity in Kindersley during playoff game three at 8:30 p.m. on Friday.