“It feels awesome,” Dyck said moments after the final horn in the Boissevain Arena. “It was on the bucket list, it’s one of the things. It’s been a while.”
Dyck said it was a process to take the squad from what was essentially an expansion team, and along with coaches Phil Kroeker and Dave Kempthorne, develop it into a champion. As he explained, you always watch top teams like Hartney, Killarney, Neepawa. You watch those and the ones who win the championships and find out why. For Dyck, it is about putting it all together.
“One of the biggest things is chemistry. You need skill and not only ability, but the ability to teach others. In and out of town, the players, it doesn’t matter. What I really, really liked this year is that we had guys believing and transferring the belief. If you have more than 65-75% believing they can take the championship, then that’s huge.”
He added he talked to families, to get everyone on board, so that any commitment players made could be total.
Despite the tough competition, the Kings did not lose too much during their 2019 championship run. They beat the Hartney Blues in the west division semi-finals three games to one, did the same to the Killarney Shamrocks in the west finals, and then swept the Lakers. Dyck said preparation was the key.
“We got together after each game, to see what we could do, what we could do better, what we can’t do,” he explained. “It was constant, day in, day out, and there were many, many talks in between every game. There were discussions between the coaches and between the players, Dittmer and LeBlanc and that, saying ‘hey, what do you think we can do better?’ It was a wonderful relationship between the coaches and the players this year.”
Over the years, as stated, Dyck and the coaches worked hard to add and subtract from the lineup to take the team over the hump. Some of the key recent additions he said were Devon LeBlanc, with Tyler Dittmer and Zeinan Ziemer filling spots over previous years. Goaltender Cody Matthewson, who had been a senior goaltender before was also important. Darren Bestland was a gift, as he was rooming with Travis Mealy. Dyck gave credit to the entire lineup for the win.
He added he was not surprised to beat the Lakers in straight games. Winning the first match in Boissevain easily 8-3, they came back from a three-goal deficit to take the second match in Gladstone 5-4 in overtime. Game three was no contest.
“They won it last year, they worked, worked, worked. They have a different style than we have in the west here. It took two games to figure out what they were doing. We said if we hit, if we use some body contact and move them off the puck, and get aggressive with them, we will easily win this game. With Killarney and Hartney, you had to do that every inch of the way. But once you hit these guys, you took them right off their game.”
“They never wanted to go back to that barn,” Dyck said after the overtime win. “It was a long drive, late night games, come home at two o’clock in the morning, not used to that. They just did not want to go back Sunday (game four in Gladstone). They said ‘let’s bring the celebration home’.”
The physical strategy worked well in the deciding game, as the Kings were able to strike early and often, lighting the lamp four times in the first frame, including a shorthanded goal, three times in the second and once more in the third to finish it up. Low had two markers, as did Dittmer. Ziemer had three assists, as did Travis Mealy. It was as much domination of the ice as could be hoped for.
Dyck felt that beating nemesis Killarney was an important step for the squad, which made the finals not only a possibility, but gave the team the confidence to take it.
There were players who enjoyed this as a major milestone. Dyck said Devon LeBlanc had been on many teams who went to championship rounds, but never won a cup. Pat Leask had been around the league for more than a decade and he finally got his title. As well, there are many players who had never been to a final, as the club had never advanced this far in the Tiger Hills League.
“Every game was a battle,” Dyck said. “But sometimes, I had this calm feeling, ‘we’re going to win today’.”
The manager said the future looks good, as there are young players coming up. He feels Killarney was a good teacher on how to build a good team, and he will always be looking to improve. Dyck gives credit to not only the players of today, but also others from the past who were part of the build. In the end, it meant another banner on the wall of the Boissevain Arena.
“It’s about time, don’t you think?”
by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff