Powell River Kings didn’t make the same mistake twice as they dispatched Coquitlam Express in the sixth game of their seven-game series.
After taking a 2-0 series advantage into Coquitlam they surrendered early leads in both games to allow the Express to tie the best of seven 2-2.
Kings won game five 3-2 and then ended the Express’s season in game six winning 4-1.
Things weren’t looking too good for Powell River on Thursday evening as Coquitlam struck for the first two goals of the game.
Desperate measures were taken when starter Sean Maguire was replaced by Jonah Imoo in goal at 26:04, not so much for Maguire’s play but to send a strong message to the players from the coaches.
The strategy paid off in spades when the Kings’ responded with three straight goals to lead 3-2 after the second period.
Cohen Adair converted a powerplay opportunity at 10:41, Teal Burns jumped on a rebound at 11:45 and finally Teagan Waugh buried a beautiful three-way passing play from linemates Brendon MacDonald and JP Villeneuve.
That’s all they needed as the league’s best defence kicked in and stymied Coquitlam for the rest of the game.
The series that had yet to yield a road win, continued in Coquitlam the next night and the two tired teams prepared to face off for the sixth time in eight nights.
Kings felt they had an edge due to the gruelling travel schedule late in the series and perhaps it tipped the scales in their favour. That and the stellar play of Maguire was key in protecting the lead that Powell River held throughout most of the game.
Captain Chris Williams opened the scoring at 14:01 of the first period but Coquitlam, as they have done throughout most of the series, responded a minute later on a goal from captain Alex Petan.
That was all they would get, however, as the Kings received goals from Evan Richardson at 2:42 of the second period and then Burns and Daniel Schuler each scored to ice it 4-1 and win the series 4-2.
Maguire gave one of his best performances of the year but he remained focused on the long-term goal. “I think it went really well,” he said after arriving back in Powell River. “We overcame a couple of hurdles but other than that I think it was expected of us to come out of this series on top and we just did what we’re supposed to do.”
When asked about the series, he said, “You can’t take anything for granted. You have to have that killer instinct,” referring to Kings’ leads and subsequent losses in games three and four. “If you get up a couple of goals you’ve got to keep pushing and in game six that’s exactly what we did.”
Assistant coach Chad van Diemen, while happy with the win, thought lessons were learned that could be used in subsequent series.
“It was a big hurdle for us to get over with Coquitlam,” he said. “They had our number and we hadn’t won in their rink all year. So we’re going to take as many positives from that as we can. On the other hand we know we have a lot of areas where we need to improve and get better as we go. That’s part of the playoffs...the further you go the sharper you get.”
Kings will play Surrey Eagles for their fourth consecutive Coastal Conference championship with games one and two at 7 pm on both Tuesday, March 27 and Wednesday, March 28 at Hap Parker Arena.
