by Glen Gibbs Peak Sports Just four teams make the playoffs this year in each of BC Hockey League’s conferences and the race, especially in the coastal division, has been extremely competitive. On Wednesday in Nanaimo, Kings’ offensive engine sputtered in a 2-0 shutout loss against the Clippers, Thursday they changed the spark plugs and roared back against Cowichan Valley Capitals 5-3 but Friday, after a great start at home against Coquitlam Express, they blew four tires and couldn’t catch up to lose 5-3. Wednesday night Kings did a lot of good things but despite outshooting Nanaimo Clippers 46-21, they lost the game 2-0. It wasn’t a golden moment for Sean Maguire when he gave up too much of the net for the Clippers to score on a bad angle at 1:23 of the third period. Kings worked hard to tie the game but when Nanaimo dumped the puck in from centre, and the dreaded crazy bounce beat Maguire to make it 2-0, they couldn’t put a dent in the lead. Kent Lewis, coach and general manager, wasn’t at all pleased with the Kings’ overall effort and wanted his troops to improve in many areas and to get “hungrier.” The next night in Duncan they were starving and dominated both the shot clock and the scoreboard. Carter Shinkaruk scored the first goal at 2:44 but the Caps replied with a couple of goals to go up 2-1 after the first period. A pep talk between periods put the Kings back on track and goals from Matt Scarth, Brenden Forbes and Craig Dalrymple established a 4-3 lead after two periods. Kings got the only goal of the third when Daniel Schuler scored the Kings’ 12th shorthanded goal of the year at 4:35 to ice the game 5-3. There wasn’t a lot of time to celebrate with Coquitlam in to meet Powell River on Friday at Hap Parker Arena. Kings charged out of the gate in their third game in three nights with two quick goals from Jon Jutzi and Dalrymple, chased Express goalie Khaleed Devji and had 10-1 shot advantage midway through the first period. The game changed in a heartbeat, however, when Cohen Adair was called for a five-minute major for a blow to the head. Adair, who is 6 feet 2 inches, collided with 5-foot-8-inch- Malcolm McKinney by the Express bench and the smaller player went down and stayed down. The referee was about to call a minor penalty but after a chat with his linesman and observing the injured player, he levelled a five-minute major and game misconduct against Adair. “I really don’t think I hit him in the head,” said Adair, “but it’s hard not to when there’s such a difference in height.” Nonetheless, the call was made and before the Kings knew it their dream start had turned into a nightmare. Express promptly scored four goals on the five-minute powerplay and the Kings took almost a full period to recover. Kings closed the gap to one in the third period when Dalrymple slammed a shot in from the point at 10:39 but once again they shot themselves in the foot with a bad giveaway. Express dumped the puck in behind the Kings net where Maguire and Chris Williams got crossed up and coughed up the puck to a waiting Express who dumped it into the empty net to make it a 5-3 final at 14:13. “We turned a good corner in Cowichan and played an intense game,” said Lewis, “but what’s plagued us for a little while here has to be addressed.” This week Kings take on the conference leaders Surrey Eagles starting at home at 7:30 pm on Friday, November 25, then travel to Surrey on Saturday, November 26 and finish up in Langley on Sunday, November 27. DIVISION: Coastal Conference TEAM GP W L T OTL PTS Surrey 21 13 5 0 3 29 Cowichan Valley 22 12 6 1 3 28 Nanaimo 22 12 7 0 3 27 Powell River 22 12 8 2 0 26 Victoria 25 13 12 0 0 26 Coquitlam 22 11 8 1 2 25 Alberni Valley 21 9 11 1 0 19 Langley 21 8 13 0 0 16
