By Jon Yaneff, Sports Reporter

Some weeks the King Wild look like they belong in the circus because it’s been a real juggling act for head coach Paul Hampton, as he’s been forced to move his forwards to the blue-line to play out of position because of the lack defenders.

With only three natural defensemen in the lineup Friday, the Wild lost a rare matinee affair to the Ontario Lightning Rams, 5-4, at King City Arena.

Hampton and the Wild didn’t have Ryan Tremmel (serving one-game suspension), Taylor McComb (broken hand), Alec Austin (hernia) and Tom Coukos (ruptured tendon in hand). All except Coukos are natural defenders, but even he has spent time on the blue-line this season.

“We have got to get some defensemen back because it’s getting crazy,” explained Hampton after the game. “I had (assistant coach) Sheldon (Friske) constantly ask me for forwards to send back on (defense) and it screws up your forward lines, so you can’t get any flow going.”

In one instance Dan Douglas would drop back and play defence. The next shift you had Jon Adams firing slap shots from the point, as well as Nick Leggieri.

“It gets tough because in certain roles I need guys on forward, but they keep moving back in forth,” added Hampton.

Back and forth seems to be the theme for the Greater Metro Junior ‘A’ Hockey League squad this season. As soon as they start to get in the groove, winning three of their last four, though against lower teams in the standings, they lose another game that theoretically the King team should have won with less than two weeks before playoffs.

“It was definitely two points we should have had,” said centre Anthony Simone. “We want to earn home-ice advantage and losing games like that is not going to do it.”

It could be argued that the Wild were the stronger of the two teams, outshooting the Rams, 58-37. Johnathan Power rightfully earned first star of the game honors, stopping 54 shots in the Rams win.

King got to a slow start, as about two minutes into the game Rams forward Val Borschevsky fired a shot that found its way through the pads of Kyle Parker. He let in another one midway through the period, as defenseman Matt Peden was the culprit.

The Wild got life with 6:31 left on the clock, as Leggieri fired a wrist shot past Power just past the blue-line that luckily squeaked in the top right corner of the net. But, before the end of the frame forward Andy Longo notched a shorthanded goal to regain the two-goal advantage for the Rams.

As the puck dropped for the second, the Richmond Hill-based club came out strong, as forward Alex Derlis scored a pair, including a power-play goal, to put the Rams in the driver seat. But, as the second went on, the Wild clawed their way back by scoring a pair of power-play goals, first by Simone, then forward Marc Fortin.

With 33 seconds left in the second, forward Matt Marchese converted a two-on-one saucer pass to Simone, to make it a one-goal game.

It was scoreless in the third, as the South Division fourth-place Wild (21-13-2, 44 points) lost a chance to move closer to the third-place Deseronto Storm (22-8-3, 47 points). The Wild did pick up two points this weekend through the forfeited points handed over from the folded Ville-Marie Dragons, during the scheduled Saturday contest. King will also have to make up a game against the fifth-place Toronto Canada Moose (15-15-3, 33 points), which was scheduled for Sunday at York University.

King will have a chance to rebound Saturday (Feb. 7), back at their normal home base, the Dr. William Laceby Community Centre and Arena, as the Wild will face the last-place Tamworth Cyclones (3-26-2, eight points), starting at 8 p.m. Then Sunday (Feb. 8) they travel to the Bob Fallis Sports Centre to play the second-place Bradford Rattlers (25-6-1, 51 points), starting at 7:30 p.m.

Injury report: Out of the lineup were Tom Coukos (ruptured tendon in hand), Taylor McComb (broken hand), Alec Austin (hernia) and Ryan Tremmel (suspension).