There were so many challenges thrown at Powell River Kings over the weekend, it is hard to know where to begin.
Every one of them was met, however, and the team capped off those successes with a 6-1 win over Trail Smoke Eaters and 3-2 double overtime win against Victoria Grizzlies to jump to number two in the national rankings.
The weekend represented one of the busiest on the schedule as the players’ parents arrived in the city for their annual visit.
Aside from the activities planned for them, circumstances arose for last year’s volunteer of the year, where funds needed to be raised.
Serious health problems and loss of income for team mascot Rocco and his family gave the Kings and their fans an opportunity to show why the organization is so important to Powell River.
The combined contributions of sponsors, fans and even the visiting Smoke Eaters raised over $10,000, including the donation of a furnace by Priority One Heating and Cooling.
“It was truly amazing,” said Kings’ marketing representative Nadine Porchetta. “This is a great community when it comes to giving back and everyone definitely gave back tonight.”
In addition to the successful fundraiser, Kings treated their parents and fans to a couple of exciting wins to increase their lead in the BC Hockey League standings.
On Friday, against a very stubborn team from Trail, goals came from Ryan Scarfo, Luke Nogard, JJ Coleshaw, Drew Dorantes and a pair by Jarryd Leung.
It was slow going in the beginning but, as they have so far this season, they wore the team down and got the job done.
“We kind of stuck with it and it shows character to do that,” said Calgary-bound Luke Ripley. “I thought we did that tonight—stick with the process, trust it—and it worked out with a couple of late goals.”
Ripley added the importance of consistency. “It’s important for us not to get too high or too low,” he explained. “Sometimes we find ourselves getting a little emotional and we’ve got to keep ourselves right in the middle. Same shift every time, every period, every game. We know our identity and we’ve just got to go out and do it.”
The second game against the Grizzlies on Saturday night presented probably the biggest challenge of the weekend.
With six key players off to the World Junior A camp in Calgary and two more on the shelf with injuries, Kings were counting on the affiliate call-ups and the remaining players to take on Victoria.
Parents, too, were on the move as they tried to keep up with their sons. Included in the pre-game introductions were Grey and Karen Chatham who flew in from Missouri to visit son Kyle.
He was injured and out for both weekend games but his father smiled and said, “It’s kind of been the way it works for us. We have three boys that play and so far this year we’ve only seen them play one weekend healthy. To compound it, we were worried about even being able to get up here because of the fog, so we’re just happy to be here to see our boy and watch the game.”
Aidan Wright scored at 3:15 of the first period and Nogard’s powerplay goal at 4:39 of the second gave the Kings a comfortable lead until they ran into trouble later on.
Grizzlies finally got one past goalie Jeff Smith at 8:58 of the third period and then forced overtime at 12:44 with a two-man advantage.
Kings’ Dorantes got the winner at 0:33 seconds of the second overtime period when he broke in alone on the Grizzlies’ net and tucked the puck in on a nice deke.
“We played without eight guys tonight and that’s hard,” explained coach and general manager Kent Lewis. “We don’t use that as a crutch or an excuse, but we were really excited about tonight to get two points and they were a hard two points.”
Smith made 44 saves for his seventh win, boosted his league-leading save percentage to 0.942 and earned the game’s first star which gave him an honourable mention for BCHL Player of the Week.
“Really good, really good,” praised his coach.
Kings aren’t sure how many, if any, of the six players will return from the Calgary camp this week but no doubt they will be ready for a pair of games against Nanaimo at 7:30 pm Friday, November 1 and 5 pm* Saturday, November 2 at Hap Parker Arena.
Editor's Note: This article was changed to correct the time of the Kings' game on Saturday.
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