When the Powell River Kings’ bus received a thumbs down from the mechanic Wednesday night, before the team was to leave for a three-game road trip, it took just a couple of calls and the wheels for a rescue plan were put in motion.
A mountain of equipment was loaded into Rick Hopper’s Country Woodworks truck while the players boarded vans donated by Captains Rick and Jennifer Robbins of Salvation Army and Robin Mitchell with Kids Come First.
“It was nice that we were able to get that done on such short notice,” said a relieved assistant coach Chad van Diemen. “We had to scramble and it didn’t take too long to get the problem solved.”
With the transportation problems sorted Kings had a more immediate worry Thursday when they lost their first game to Merritt Centennials 4-1 but improved Friday to tie Coquitlam Express 4-4 and stole a 5-3 win at Prospera Centre in Chilliwack against the Chiefs on Saturday.
It took the Kings a little over two minutes to open the scoring on Thursday when affiliate call-up Brandon Tidy of Campbell River Storm capitalized on an early Merritt turnover.
It was the Centennials however, not the Kings, who rallied off the quick goal and Merritt consistently out-hustled the Kings for the next 58 minutes to score four unanswered goals and win 4-1.
Kings went 0-3 on the powerplay, were out-shot 29-23 and Sean Maguire lost his second of the year in goal.
Surprised and disappointed, the Kings had no time to dwell on the loss as they travelled to Coquitlam the next day.
The Express had upset the Kings 4-3 the week before but this time the Kings answered two Coquitlam goals with two of their own for a 2-2 tie after the first period.
Kings took control of the game early in the second period 4-2 on goals from Evan Richardson and Tidy which prompted Coquitlam to change goaltenders.
Kings continued to pour shots on the Express net but came up empty while Coquitlam scored twice to tie 4-4.
The final shot count was 49-25 in favour of Powell River but Maguire and his teammates had to settle for a single point after two scoreless overtime periods.
Game three was in Chilliwack Saturday and the Chiefs were still basking in the glow of their 4-1 win over Vernon Vipers the night before.
At least that’s what it looked like after three Kings’ powerplay goals in the first period, two by Cohen Adair and one by Jon Jutzi, and things were going well for Powell River.
They added to their lead on a slick breakaway goal from Carter Shinkaruk but the never-say-die Harvey Smyl-led Chiefs battled back to close within one goal 4-3 at 13:33 of the third period.
They almost completed the comeback when Kings’ Taylor Carmola was sent off for tripping at 18:46 but with six Chief skaters, Teagan Waugh cleared the puck the length of the ice and into the empty net at 19:35 for the 5-3 win.
“We just weren’t ready for the game in Merritt,” said van Diemen of the road trip. “It was a decent first period but just stopped from there. We felt our three losses in a row were self-inflicted.
“In Coquitlam we out-played them, out-shot them but we gave up a two-goal lead and that was disappointing,” he said. “The guys did a great job of bouncing back against Chilliwack. That’s a tough rink to play in and that was a huge win.”
Kings’ bus is now fixed and ready to roll and players will be on it this week with games in Langley on Saturday, October 22 and at 2:30 pm Sunday, October 23 in Alberni Valley.
