On one of their longest road trips of the year, Powell River Kings salvaged a point in a 5-4 overtime loss to Chilliwack Chiefs, lost 5-1 to Merritt Centennials and gutted out a valiant effort in Prince George against the Spruce Kings and won 3-2.
At the first stop in Chilliwack on Friday, they got right to business and ripped off goals from Kurt Keats and Stephen Hiff to lead 2-0 midway through the first period.
The lead was nice while it lasted but Chilliwack scored twice in the last half of the first and added two more later on to lead 4-2 midway through the third period.
It wasn’t looking good for the Kings but Jarid Lukosevicius put the team on his back with a power-play goal at 15:24 and then an even strength one at 16:10 to claw back to a 4-4 tie.
It remained tied through regulation but the Kings lost their fourth overtime decision of the year when the Chiefs’ Craig Puffer scored his third of the game at 2:52 of the first five-minute period.
Kings’ netminder Brett Magnus stopped 36 of 41 shots on goal and several of those were of the one-on-one variety that helped the Kings to gain a point.
Kings’ next game was Saturday night in the small confines of Merritt’s Nicola Valley Memorial Arena otherwise known as “the closet.”
Veteran players shudder at the thought of returning there and new Kings were warned of the pitfalls they might encounter on the small ice surface.
In the end, however, they played like they just wanted to get in and out, reflected by the 5-1 drubbing at the hands of the Centennials.
Merritt scored the first three goals of the game and chased starter Magnus midway through the game in favour of 16-year-old Dawson Rodin, who replaced injured Stefan Wornig for this trip.
Kings’ Keats lifted his team’s spirits with a goal minutes after the change on the power play but Rodin, understandably jittery in his first BC Hockey League game, allowed a late second period goal and early one in third before he settled in the rest of the game.
There wasn’t a lot of jump for the Kings and it looked as though they would ride off quietly into the night when Centennials’ Jake Clifford leapt into a blindside hit on Hunter Findlater at centre ice.
The gross check, clearly meant to injure, drew a collective gasp from the crowd for the viciousness of the senseless attack in a 5-1 game that was just over a minute from ending.
Findlater returned to Powell River after the game while the rest of the team departed immediately for Quesnel, the resting place prior to their game in Prince George at 3 pm on Sunday.
Kings lost their previous encounter with the Spruce Kings 5-4 in overtime a couple of weeks ago but this time, through a tremendous effort from Magnus and very timely scoring, they turned the tables with a 3-2 win.
Liam Lawson got them started at 9:58 of the opening period and Keats shocked the Spruce Kings with two more to give Powell River a comfortable 3-0 lead early in the second period.
Prince George started to chip away at the Kings’ lead with a goal in the second and another in third but Magnus, with 44 saves on 46 shots, was brilliant and deserving of his first star award.
“It was a tough, tough trip,” said head coach and general manager Kent Lewis. “We started well in Chilliwack but took a penalty in overtime and they sunk us. We were soft as butter in Merritt and when you’re soft as a group bad stuff is going to happen.”
Lewis brought Findlater home after the Merritt game but of the game in Prince George he said, “I thought it was a game where Magnus was a big part of winning it. You want to be above .500 on the road and early in the season we are over .500, but we need to be a little better at home and this week is big.”
He’s referring to the pair of games against division leader Nanaimo at 7:15 pm on Friday, October 31 and 5 pm Saturday, November 1.
DIVISION: Island Division
TEAM GP W L T OTL PTS
Nanaimo 15 11 4 0 0 22
Alberni Valley 14 8 5 1 0 17
Victoria 14 6 6 0 2 14
Powell River 15 5 6 0 4 14
Cowichan Valley 15 3 12 0 0 6
