KINGS GET SMASHED BY THE NOW FIRST PLACE BLACK BEARS The Kings were no match up for one of the leagues top teams, the Black Bears. Being outskilled and out played, and a deficit of 5-0 at one point, the Kings never had a chance in this game. March 2, 2003- The Black Bears rolled into Disney Ice in somewhat of a slump when they faced the Kings Sunday night. The Bears rescently went 1 win in their last 3 games, which slipped them down to second place. With the win over the Kings, the Bears are bumped back to first place tie against the Kings next opponent, the Bluegills. Not only does it get eaiser for the Kings, Sundays loss makes them seed no higher than 5th place in the novice league.

Right- Tracy Lytle finds himself on the ice... just as Lytle falls, so are the Kings as they will finish no better than the bottom half of the standings - As mentioned in the article before, the Kings needed to keep the opponent off the board to start the game, and get off to a quick start of their own. For the 7th game in a row, the other team scored within the first two minutes--this time, 13 seconds to start the game on their first shot. Mark Ryan of the Black Bears drove in and put the puck over Martin Hoesli's shoulder, and quickly it was 1-0. The talent of the Black Bears continued as they would score the next 4 goals in the game, and would jump to a 5-0 lead halfway through the game. Ryan would score again for the Bears, with his team leading 22nd goal of the season. Jeremy Bowman would have an outstanding game for the Bears, netting in the game winning goal, and 4 assists for a 5 point night. Points leader Ronnie Gripp was kept off the board for the most part, picking up only 1 assits for his 34th point of the season. It shows how well the Bears have depth, and their talent on the ice showed against the Kings.

Its not that the Kings had a bad game against the Black Bears, they just didn't have a good one. THere were chances, goal posts hit, odd man rushes, put Gary Miller was the only one to solve goaltender Scott Makay, when he put in his team leading 15th goal and 26th point of the season. The Kings were basically outskilled by the Bears. The physical play was absent from the Kings tonight, which is defentily needed against a skilled team like the Bears. Also, communication was not expressed as much as it should, decreasing the number of scoring chances the Kings had. However, of McKays 25 saves, most of those saves were quality shots that the Kings put on net.

The Kings need to put their head up and focus on next game, when they play another good team, the first place Bluegills. The Kings did give the Bluegills one loss in overtime eariler this season, and if the Kings bring their legs and physical game to the next game, it should be a good match-up.