The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team needed a four-goal victory in Saturday night’s game against the Kyle Elks to stay alive in provincial “C” hockey action and keep their three-year provincial championship dynasty intact.

The Cyclones lost 4-1 to the Elks at the Kyle Arena Feb. 15 in the first game of their two-game total goals wins series not for a lack of effort, but more to the fact the team was short skaters compared to the full lineup iced by the Elks.

“We’re not happy losing 4-1, but we lost (leading scorer) Steve DaSilva in the middle of the second period,” said Cyclones head coach Jason Shaw. “He took a puck to the face and ended up with seven stitches, so starting with 12 (skaters) and ending up with 11, 4-1 isn’t that bad.”

Shaw said DaSilva, who scored the Cyclones lone goal on the night at the five-minute mark of the first period, headed to Swift Current for medical attention as soon as he was knocked out of the game and is expected back in the lineup for the next game. The team was also without forwards Pat Cey and Kevin Johnson, who are serving suspensions, and captain Derek Allan, who is out long-term with a knee injury and is not expected back.

The DaSilva goal gave Davidson their only lead of the night and it was short-lived. Four minutes after the Cyclones goal, Kyle tied it up courtesy of Elks captain Danny Williams. Six minutes later the Elks would go up for good off a shot from Jeff Marshall. Two more goals in the second period by the Elks wound up being the game.

“They’re a good team, probably as good as last year,” said Shaw, referring to the Cyclones championship winning match-up with the Elks last March that saw Davidson take home its third provincial championship. “We knew we were going to have to play well to beat them and it just worked out that we could only get 12 guys there. Even with the 12 we had, there were guys that had to take off work or change stuff around. The guys that were there played hard and I thought (Cyclones goaltender) Mark Zoerb played really good.”

The next home game for the Cyclones is this Wednesday. Davidson is playing their second game of a five-game second round series against the LeRoy Braves in the Long Lake Hockey League playoffs.

“It should be a good series,” said Shaw. “We won two, lost two in league (against the Braves). We have a decent chance of beating them, but we’ll have to play well. With them having home ice, we’re going to have to win at least one in their rink and that’s always tough. They also haven’t played for a while, so they’ll be rested.”

Results of Saturday night’s game against the Elks were unavailable at press time.