Midnight finally struck for the U18 Prinzen Ford Prince Edward County Kings.

After gaining a one game lead over Norwood in the Eastern Ontario Minor Hockey League finals, the Hornets buzzed back to sting the Kings in a pair of one goal losses in Games 2 and 3.

Norwood moves on to the Ontario Minor Hockey Association U18 championship tournament. The Kings are left to imagine what might have been.

Despite coming one game short of playing for the vaunted OMHA Red Hats—the fabled headgear presented to All-Ontario champions—Kings coach Steve Payne called the postseason run, which included series wins over Stirling and Brighton, “Amazing.”

“It was an amazing run and I thank the players for taking me along for the ride,” Coach Payne told the Gazette. “We caught fire as a group and the players have nothing to be ashamed of.”

The Kings took Game 1 in Norwood on March 14 with a 3-2 win. Jake Gallagher bagged a pair for the Kings while Olivier Carrier tallied a single.

At home for Game 2 on March 16 and with a chance to clinch, there wasn’t much left between the Kings and Hornets as they battled tooth and nail.

After a scoreless first, the Kings nearly broke the game open near the end of the second when Alex Lavender tickled the top of the crossbar off a rush.

The Hornets collected the puck and quickly tore up the ice on a 2-on-1 rush. Norwood’s Preston Buckingham fired an icebreaker with 2:43 left in the middle stanza.

Early in the third, Prince Edward County’s power play went to work and Alex Lavender let loose on an equalizer 55 seconds into the period.

Norwood’s netminder Ethan Harding came up big for the Bees in the third as the Kings pushed to gain a lead.

The Hornets pushed ahead midway through the period when Caleb Levesque picked up a rebound and beat Jack Lavender at 9:43.

That was all Norwood needed that night as they avoided elimination.

On Friday, March 20, the teams took the ice with an EOMHL Championship banner hanging in the balance.

Trailing 2-0 into the second, Wyatt Kingsley gave the locals a jolt with a goal at the 8:21 mark.

The Kings pressed for the rest of the contest to light the lamp one more time to force overtime but a game-tying goal never materialized.

The Coach spoke to the efforts of graduating players Mr. Gallagher, Alex Lavender, Jake Payne, Jake Banfield, Cameron Billing, and Keenan Elliott.

“It was a season and playoff run to remember,” Mr. Payne said. “We just ran out of gas at the end.”