KITCHENER – You sure wouldn’t know by watching them that the Kitchener Dutchmen occupy the basement of the Midwestern Junior B standings.
They piled in three power-play goals and two shorthanded markers for good measure as they plowed the Listowel Cyclones 9-4 on Sunday night.
Playing on the spacious Kinsmen Arena in Kitchener, the Dutchmen took full advantage of their special teams opportunities.
The salt-in-the-wound moment was a shorthanded solo effort by Matt Murphy with 32 seconds to go to secure their 13th win in 40 tries this season.
After the final buzzer, Cyclone’s captain Eric Deckers said they disagreed with some of the calls the officials made but wouldn’t use that as an excuse for getting dusted by the Dutchmen.
“We thought there was some bad calls but we can’t blame it on the refs, we’ve still got to beat that team no matter what happens out there,” he said after the team’s second defeat of the weekend, the first being a 3-0 shutout to Elmira on Friday.
It was a shot-for-shot affair prior to the third period as Listowel only trailed 4-3 on goals from Patrick Bell, Drew Davidson – on a nifty give-and-go play with Bobby Cook – and Miles MacLean.
Kitchener then squeaked a sharp angle shot past goalie James Prigione, who replaced starter Brock Hansell after he suffered an undisclosed injury, but MacLean pulled them back within a goal on a rebound with the man advantage.
After hemming Listowel in their own zone for a full shift, Gian Paul Delle Donne potted a key insurance tally while Prigione was playing with defenceman Dawson Smith’s stick since he dropped his earlier in the scramble.
It was all the home team after that.
Clearly frustrated, there were a pair of fights in the final two minutes featuring Listowel’s Brendan Haefling and Bobby Cook, the latter known for his scoring not his punching.
Scoring was an issue in the loss at home to Elmira on Friday as no player was able to beat Nick Horrigan. He turned aside 33 shots and posted the Sugar King’s first shutout of the season.
“We couldn’t bury our chances again that night, we just seem to be snake-bitten right now,” Deckers said. “Battle a little bit harder and pucks will go in for us.”
Listowel (21-18-1) heads out on an extremely tough two-game road trip this weekend.
First stop is in Brantford on Saturday night to face the first-place Golden Eagles (34-5-3) at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday night they head to the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex for a 7:30 p.m. puck drop with the Waterloo Siskins (33-6-1).
Combined, the two teams have only lost six times in 38 home games this season.
On the injury front, defenceman Joel Bowman of Atwood is expected to be out another two weeks with an arm ailment.