For the number of players Powell River Kings have shuffled in and out of the lineup in the last month they have played remarkably well and maintained a high national ranking.
From sending eight players out to the east for the World Junior A events to an average of four injured regulars who watch from the stands each game, the merry-go-round of affiliate call-ups has given coaches and healthy players fits.
“Our APs have been fantastic,” said coach and general manager Kent Lewis, “and they have helped us to get over a difficult stretch. You know us, we don’t make excuses about anything,” but “it would be nice to get close to our roster here at some point.”
Such as it is, Kings turned the frowns of a 7-3 loss to Penticton Vees on Friday into smiles with a convincing 6-3 win over Cowichan Valley Capitals on Sunday.
Vees last saw action in a 4-2 loss to Salmon Arm Silverbacks on October 26 and the long layoff obviously made for a team itching to get untracked against top-ranked Powell River.
King’s Drew Dorantes opened the scoring at 6:10 but Vees quieted the excited home crowd with seven unanswered goals to lead 7-1 midway through the final period.
Luke Nogard and Aidan Wright got a couple of late ones for the Kings but the 7-3 final was a bitter disappointment for everyone.
“Turning points, I thought, were a couple of rebounds where we let guys get to the net and timely goals by them,” said Lewis. “It got away from us and to put it simply we were bad with the puck.”
A tired team from Cowichan arrived on Sunday to play their third game in three days and the Kings were much better and thumped them 6-3.
Powell River looked ready to run away with it on three unanswered first period goals from Dorantes, Matt Scarth and Ryan Scarfo.
Cowichan mustered up the energy to reply with the only two goals in the second period but the Kings dominated the third with three more to Cowichan’s one.
Dorantes added his third of the weekend, Nogard his second and Scarth, who has been out 15 games injured, celebrated his return with his second of the game.
“The only blemishes today,” said Lewis, “were not getting into two shooting lanes on their powerplay, but other than that our guys were good. We’ve just got to know to out-work an opponent, out-think an opponent and when we don’t do that we get a result like the Penticton one.”
Lewis particularly liked the attention to detail by his centres. “We were lights out in the dots,” he said, “and that allowed us to have a lot of possession.”
Healthy and back in the lineup, Scarth immediately contributed with his touch around the net.
“A great play by Luko [Jarid Lukosevicius] to come off the wall,” said Scarth, replaying his first goal, “and he saw me going to the net so he found a lane and I managed to get a stick on the puck.”
Of the win, Scarth added, “It was a big character game for us because no one was happy with Friday night or the couple of games we’ve lost to the upper teams in the league.”
Scarth has been able to analyze the play of the Kings from the stands and returned to the lineup with this advice. “It’s just simple,” he explained. “Sometimes we play good but there are lulls. We might come out without jump in the first or maybe lulls in the third, so the biggest thing I would say is consistency and playing 60 minutes. If we can do that we’ll get more wins.”
Considering the chaotic roster juggling, Kings still lead the BC Hockey League with just four regulation losses and are ranked number five nationally.
This weekend they host Alberni Valley Bulldogs for two games. The first starts at 7:30 pm Friday, November 15 and then 5 pm Saturday, November 16.
Knorr takes to the ice
In his National Hockey League debut, Powell River’s Trent Knorr will be tying up his skate laces and heading out onto the ice to referee a game between Toronto Maple Leafs and Minnesota Wild Wednesday, November 13.
“I’m definitely nervous, but I am excited too,” he said. He was in Texas over the weekend and headed to Minneapolis on Tuesday.
Anyone wishing to watch the game can tune into TSN at 5 pm.
.jpg;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)