Former Powell River Kings’ goaltender Jonah Imoo and the Merritt Centennials visited Hap Parker Arena in the lone game for Powell River over Valentine’s weekend.
There were the usual good-natured pleasantries traded between Imoo and his old teammates but when they got down to business his 30-save performance was enough to lock up a 4-2 win for the visitors.
Merritt left home at 5 am and arrived at 2 pm to take the ice against the Kings.
Despite the long trip they got right down to business and even with the heroics of Kings’ netminder Brett Magnus, the visitors led 2-0 after the first period.
The Centennials got goals at 10:32 from Zak Bowles and a late power-play effort from Sam Johnson but Magnus faced 16 shots in the period, many of them dangerous.
He robbed Colin Grannary with a great glove save, sniper Gavin Gould at the side of the net and two clutch pad saves on Diego Cuglietta and Cole Chorney from the slot.
If not for Magnus the score might have been much higher but as it was the Kings bounced back in the second period to tie the game 2-2.
It was their turn to test Imoo and while outshooting the Centennials 15-12, Kings’ Jacob Pritchard, last week’s BC Hockey League player of the week, showed why he is so dangerous.
Kings found themselves with a two-man advantage in the middle of the second period, called a timeout to organize themselves, and after moving the puck around smartly Pritchard snapped a wrist shot from the high slot that beat Imoo cleanly on his glove side.
His goal closed the gap to 2-1 but they didn’t tie until the last minute of the period when Jonny Evans stuffed in the rebound off the point shot of Ross Hnidy.
Tied 2-2 Kings saw the first chance to take the lead when they got a zamboni bounce off the glass of the doors that let the machine in and out.
The puck came right out to the slot area but it was just out of reach of Liam Lawson who saw a great opportunity to score slip by.
While both teams were limited in their chances the Centennials made the most of theirs, one of them at 9:40.
They converted a slick two-on-one passing play to slide in the winner on Magnus and salted the victory when Chorney sped through two defencemen and did the same.
It was not exactly the result the Kings were looking for in their only game of the weekend but head coach and general manager Kent Lewis was more concerned about the trend.
“Two losses in a row to two hungry opponents,” he said, “and little things like turnovers tonight cost us. I don’t necessarily think we were outworked but they played better with the puck. We’ve got to bring a desire and puck management skills every night because two teams came in here showing up to play and showing up to win. That’s the big thing.”
Of course, he’s hoping that the Kings will fix that before the playoffs which they learned will start on March 3.
The format is the same as last year with two divisional best-of-seven series followed by a three divisional winner round robin.
The top two teams from that will play a best-of-seven series and the winner will advance to the Western Canada Cup in Fort McMurray and then to the Royal Bank Cup in Portage-la-Prairie, Manitoba May 9 to 17.
Kings head out on their last road trip of the regular season playing in Nanaimo against the Clippers on Friday, February 20, and then Victoria against the Grizzlies on Saturday, February 21.
DIVISION: Island Division
Standings Expanded Standings
TEAM GP W L T OTL PTS OTW GF GA
y-Nanaimo 55 36 16 0 3 75 6 222 157
x-Powell River 54 26 18 1 9 62 7 196 191
x-Victoria 53 24 18 1 10 59 3 198 196
x-Alberni Valley 52 26 21 2 3 57 3 186 171
Cowichan Valley 54 20 30 2 2 44 5 162 218
