It’s something that Powell River Kings’ fans and players will never get used to and that’s a first-place finish in the Coastal Conference.
This year was a little tougher than the others, what with the welcome distraction of World Junior A Championships, but the Kings came through with a brilliant late season performance.
They began the weekend with three games on the road and three points behind Surrey Eagles for the top spot.
Kings beat Nanaimo Clippers 3-1 on Friday while Surrey lost to Kelowna’s Westside Warriors 4-2. This meant Powell River only needed to win one out of their two remaining games.
The mission was accomplished quickly when they rolled over the hapless Grizzlies in Victoria 7-0 and then put an exclamation point on the season with a 5-0 shutout of the Clippers in Nanaimo Sunday afternoon.
Kings got off to a great start on Friday when Jordan Benton and Daniel Schuler scored to give them a 2-0 lead in the third period.
Nanaimo got one back on a five-on-three powerplay but Kings’ Sean Maguire held them off the rest of the way until Cohen Adair scored into an empty net at 19:54.
With the win, and the news that Surrey had lost, Kings took the ice in Victoria on Saturday determined to seal the deal for first place.
They did that with three goals in the first four minutes and four in the period with Teal Burns and Adair each getting a pair.
JP Villeneuve scored the only goal of the second period and Teagan Waugh and Jon Jutzi got singles in the third to round out the scoring while Jonah Imoo recorded the shutout.
Kings went into Nanaimo for the 60th game of the year with nothing to prove and received two goals from affiliate call-up Jackson Garrett and singles from Jutzi, Evan Richardson and Matt Scarth to skate to their 39th win of the year.
With his back-to-back goose eggs, Imoo’s consecutive three shutouts, combined with Maguire’s three and Jamie Phillip’s five, gives the Kings 11 during the season.
Kings are top among goaltending duos category for the second year in a row. They also allowed the fewest goals in the league with 127, six less than Penticton Vees’ 133.
Of their weekend success and first-place finish head coach and general manager Kent Lewis said, “We had probably the biggest turnover in the division for players outside of Nanaimo. We had a lot to learn through the year and we were quite a ways away from first place at one point but just stuck, really, with our game plan.”
Lewis remarked that since Christmas player attendance has been more consistent, which has helped. “Your goal every year,” he said, “is to be good and be consistent and I think we’ve shown that in finishing first. Now the focus is not patting ourselves on the back too much, but we worked hard to get home ice and that’s what it is all about.”
Of their first-round opponent Lewis said Coquitlam Express has been a tough competitor during regular season. “With our division being as tight as it was,” he said, “it’s great with all four teams having great years and the playoffs are going to be very difficult.”
The first best-of-seven series against Coquitlam starts at 7:30 pm on Friday, March 16 and Saturday, March 17 at Hap Parker Arena.
Games three and four continue in Coquitlam on March 19 and 20.
Kings Scroll:
BC Hockey League awards have been announced. Craig Dalrymple won Best Coastal Conference Defenceman. Sean Maguire and Jonah Imoo won the Wally Forslund Award for top goaltending tandem (2.05gaa).
