An offensive eruption has given the Dauphin Kings their ticket to the Turnbull Cup Playoffs for the second straight season. Behind a three-goal performance from Austin Lamotte and 10 goals overall, the Kings hammered OCN, 10-3.
It was Lamotte's first career hat-trick and it booked Dauphin's berth to the playoffs, the seventh team that has qualified this season.
"It's always good when you clinch and you get that chance, you work for that all year," said Doug Hedley, Head Coach, and General Manager. "With that said, we know we have a good chance to move up in the standings if we have some consistency for the next five games and that's what we're trying to do."
"All of the boys are pretty happy and it's a proud feeling for us," said Lamotte after the game.
Brendan Arnold opened up the scoring for Dauphin midway through the first before OCN tied it. From that point on, Dauphin cruised. Bryson Cecconi made it 2-1 and with just one second left in the first, Lamotte scored his first of the night.
Dauphin scored six goals alone in the second. Grady Hobbs had two while Lamotte had another. Brayden Pawluk, Noah Wagner, and Nakodan Greyeyes also scored for Dauphin in the second as they went up 9-2 after 40 minutes of play.
In the third, Lamotte scored his 16th of the season and third of the game to seal the huge victory for Dauphin.
"I'm pretty happy about it, it was pretty cool, but I couldn't have done it without my teammates, they were great," concluded Lamotte.
Dauphin has now won 27 games, two short of last year's regular-season total. They'll look to make it 28 on Friday when they welcome the Portage Terriers to town. Darnell Duff will have the broadcast of Saturday's game from Neepawa beginning at 7:15 with the pregame show.
