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Caps can clinch Kent Cup before full house at Credit Union Place


Tuesday, April 14th 2009Caps can clinch Kent Cup before full house at Credit Union Place
Is tonight the night?

JASON SIMMONDS
The Journal Pioneer

  SUMMERSIDE -- The Kent Cup, emblematic of Maritime Junior 'A' Hockey League supremacy, will be at Credit Union Place tonight.
The Summerside Western Capitals and Truro Bearcats will decide if it's presented, or the best-of-seven series continues.
The scenario is simple -- the Caps win and they parade the Kent Cup before their hometown fans; a Bearcats' victory forces Game 6 in Truro on Thursday night.
"We're relaxed and we're going into it like any other game," said Capitals defenceman Josh McKinnon.
The Capitals, who are 11-1 (won-lost) in the post-season, are pursuing the franchise's second-ever MJAHL championship and first since 1997.
After attracting almost 4,100 fans to Game 3, Credit Union Place is nearing a sellout as only standing-room tickets remain for tonight.
"We'll certainly have another large and enthusiastic crowd to play in front of," said Capitals head coach Kenny MacDougall. "Our focus right now is to go out and have each line win their shift.
"We'll focus shift by shift, period by period and if each line concentrates on winning their 40, 45 seconds on the ice, we're going to have success.
"We've got to approach it as any other game."

Won last two games
After the teams split the first two games, the Capitals won Games 3 and 4 by three-goal margins -- 5-2 and 4-1.
"We talked after the game in Truro (on Saturday) that while it was good to win and go up 3-1, we need to put that game behind us and just focus on the game here Tuesday," said MacDougall. "We're trying to approach this as another playoff game and you can't look too far ahead.
"Truro is not going to quit, they have a lot of pride on that hockey team and they're going to come out hard. We expect a hard-fought game and we're just going to focus on the first period."
With the significance of the game, how do the Caps go about not getting caught up in the excitement surrounding the game?
"We stay in our own little bubble," answered McKinnon. "We've talked about it since Day 1 that it's our team, we do what we can to win and don't get distracted by anything."

Back to work
After having Sunday off, the Capitals practised at Credit Union Place's Ice Pad on Monday afternoon.
"We just had a light skate," said MacDougall. "We've pretty well been running the same practice now for three or four weeks. We don't want to mess with a good thing.
"It's just like a pre-game skate practice -- lots of flow, lots of puck movement, lots of passing and gives guys a chance to work out some of the kinks for Tuesday night."

jpsports@journalpioneer.com


Series Notes

Summerside-Truro
final series notes:

The Capitals have outscored the Bearcats 14-6 in the series.

Capitals forward Chad Locke, who leads all playoff scorers with 27 points, including 14 goals, has a series-high eight points. Locke has four goals and four assists in the first four games. Defenceman Spencer Corcoran is the next top point-getter for the Capitals with six -- two goals and four assists.

Sam Hounsell is the top Truro scorer in the first four games. He has three assists.

The Capitals have only trailed in the series by one goal twice - for 10:41 in Game 2 and a 1:19 span in Game 3.

The Capitals have outshot the Bearcats in each of the first four games, including an overall total of 139-100.

The Bearcats are 1-for-31 on the power play and the Caps are 2-for-20.   PHOTO- JASON SIMMONDS
© Summerside Western Capitals 2008 - MJAHL Real-Time scoring system developed & maintained by Avid Media Ltd.