With their parents in town for Thanksgiving weekend, Powell River Kings were on the short end of a 5-2 decision to Trail Smoke Eaters Friday, October 10, but bounced back to win a nail-biter 7-6 over Coquitlam Express on Sunday afternoon.
Prior to the game on Friday, fans teamed up with friends to raise funds for the family of Anakin Fretts who was involved in a serious car accident.
In the game, Stephen Hiff got the Kings off to a great start on the power play when he converted a nice pass from Kurt Keats into the first goal at 7:04.
Trail tied it 1-1 at 14:09 and then got the dreaded go-ahead goal with just five seconds remaining in the period.
Kings tied 2-2 on another power-play effort when Keats took the puck at the face-off dot and then skated completely around the net, through the slot and back to where he started to unleash a perfect shot in the top corner.
His goal at 7:48, however, was the last cheer in the building as the Smoke Eaters scored three unanswered goals and virtually smothered any comeback by the Kings.
“It was very disappointing,” said head coach and general manager Kent Lewis. He related it to “a lot of immaturity and guys, especially our veterans, letting us down.”
With a day off to think about that loss the Kings looked to bounce back in front of family, some who had come a long way for a reunion.
JJ Coleshaw’s grandfather John flew in from Saskatchewan with JJ’s his parents, John and Paula, and John senior was wondering where the years went.
“He shot one basement wall out a couple of times,” he chuckled. “I took some pictures of it and there must be 10,000 black marks on one sheet of Gyproc.”
JJ’s mother Paula said it had been a long travel day. “Kids are worth it though,” she said, smiling.
Of JJ’s three years in Powell River she said, “It’s mixed feelings. Of course we’d love to see him at home but he is so happy here. He loves being in Powell River and he loves the team.”
Parents hadn’t taken their seats after centre ice introductions before Jarryd Leung picked up a loose puck off a faceoff in the Express end and went to his backhand to lift it into the top of the net at 0:48 seconds.
Coquitlam tied it at 7:14 on the power play but the Kings quickly got the lead back, 2-1, when newcomer Ross Hnidy blasted one in from the point at 7:34.
Kings added three more in a row by Hiff, Jarid Lukosevicius and Leung and held a comfortable 5-1 lead late in the second.
Coquitlam closed to 5-2 before the end of the period but really, with the Express in their third game in three days, it seemed to be a matter of just playing smart and cleaning up.
Express scored at just 0:22 seconds to make it 5-3 and then a series of penalties, mistakes and more goals resulted in a messy 7-6 final score.
“It’s a group right now that has to find its identity,” said Lewis, “and the way to do that is through hard work. In the first we got pucks deep, got pressure on them and put pucks on the net and good things happened. Then all of a sudden turnovers, bad penalties and boom they’re back in the ballgame.”
Hiff, who had three goals on the weekend, is just one short of his entire output last year and he spoke about the process of building a team.
“We’ve got a lot of new faces this year,” he said. “We’re still finding the way to win. The reason we got up 5-1 is because we were doing everything we preach in practice and working hard. But we got a little too complacent later on and we can’t be doing that.”
There is much more game time than practice time this week as the Kings played in Cowichan last night, Nanaimo tonight and then host Prince George at 7:15 pm on Friday, October 17 and Nanaimo Clippers at 2 pm on Sunday, October 19.
