The Dauphin Kings once again put together a pretty solid effort, but they earned no points to show for it.
Opening a weekend set in Winnipeg against the Steinbach Pistons, Dauphin dropped a 4-1 decision against the league-leading Pistons, who improved to 20-2-1 on the season.
The loss; meanwhile, drops the Kings to 15-6-1 on the season as they remain four points back of Virden for first place in the West Division, but Dauphin does still have two games in hand.
Brandon Funk scored the lone goal of the first period as his 13th of the season gave Steinbach a 1-0 lead. Dauphin would respond in the second as Jordan Bax finished a play for his eighth of the season. Gavin Nemis was the main reason for the goal as he had an overall outstanding game for the Kings.
That was it for Dauphin as Leo Chambers scored a pair of goals for Steinbach in the third and Connor Paronuzzi also scored for the Pistons in the three-goal win. Steinbach has now outscored Dauphin, 9-2, this season and the Pistons have scored seven times in the third period against Dauphin.
The Kings went 0-for-7 on the power play and they now only have two goals across their last 35 chances. The team will look to get back in the win column on Sunday when they remain in Winnipeg, but head to the Hockey For All Centre to play the Winnipeg Blues. Darnell Duff will have the pregame show at 7:15.
