In a continuation of the second round of playoffs against Nanaimo last spring, the Kings lost a tight 2-1 season opening battle on Saturday, September 12, but bounced back to take the rematch 3-2 on Sunday afternoon.
BC Hockey League did the Kings and their fans a big favour by bringing Nanaimo in for the back-to-back games because the Clippers are a good gauge of where the Kings are at and what they will need to do to be a contender this year.
Nanaimo, which lost to Penticton Vees last year in the BC league final, brought back a solid contingent of veteran players and played a rigorous five-game exhibition schedule.
After a long layoff, the Kings were aching for competition and ready to show the fans what they had.
After a short introduction of the team and official season-opening puck drop by Kings president Rob Villaini, junior hockey was back in Powell River for 2015-16.
The adrenalin kicked in for the Kings and in the first 10 minutes they carried the play and the one-sided effort had the crowd wondering if the lights went out on the Clippers side of the shot clock.
Nanaimo started to come back in the second half of the period, but just when it looked as though the first period would end in a scoreless tie, Kings forward Tristan Mullin, off the hard work of line mate Curtis McCarrick, went right to the net from the corner and stuffed in his own rebound at 18:37.
It was short-lived joy at Hap Parker Arena because the Clippers rebounded with the only two goals in the second period, and the goaltending battle continued in the scoreless third, giving Nanaimo an eventual 2-1 road win.
Save for the slight letdown in the middle period, the Kings played a solid game given the layoff. Of course, coach Kent Lewis is seldom satisfied with pretty good.
Kings went 1-9 on the power play which is something that will only improve over time and practice.
“You go into game one without a lot of game readiness,” admitted Lewis, “and the power play is going to get a lot better. Their goalie was pretty good and so was ours, but we just have to get better tomorrow and with a game under our belt, we will.”
Three Powell River natives, Jack Long, Rylan Ball and Hunter Findlater, were loudly cheered in the player introductions and afterwards, understandably, Long admitted to a few butterflies in his first game.
“A little bit,” he said, “and I didn’t touch the puck much in my first couple of shifts, but I got used to it pretty quick.”
Long got a bucketload of minutes in his debut. “I won’t be as nervous and I think I’ll feel a little better tomorrow,” he said.
Someone who has been through that is Ball. He was with the Kings through the Nanaimo playoff series last year.
“I thought we worked hard and it would have been nice to see a couple of bounces go our way,” he said.
Ball must have been psychic because he scored the winning goal in a thrilling 3-2 victory over the Clippers on Sunday.
Tristan Mullin got them off to a quick start with his second goal of the weekend at just 0:51 of the first period.
Nanaimo answered quickly at 3:52 but Mullin, on the power play, with a terrific solo effort to circle out and lift the puck over the Clippers goalie, completed his series hat trick.
Nanaimo answered that one, too, before the end of the second period, but in the third Ball raced down the left wing and scored with a low wrist shot from the circle.
From there, the Kings did what they had to do and Smith was strong in the net, robbing Clippers sniper Sheldon Rempal on at least two point-blank efforts.
After the win Mullin celebrated his own and his team’s success and commented on the difference between the two outcomes.
“Bearing down on pucks, I think we had a little more jump today,” he said of the Sunday win. “Obviously, they are on the road and we’re in our beds, so I think that helps, too. Yesterday I think we faltered in the second period and that really cost us, but today we had a full 60 and that’s why we got the two points.”
Kings will be in their road beds this weekend against Cowichan on Friday, September 18, Nanaimo on Saturday, September 19 and winding up in Alberni Valley on Sunday afternoon, September 20.
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