Powell River King’s opening five-game series is a classic David versus Goliath story that has the potential to realize a similar conclusion, leading 2-1 after three games.
Their opponents, Victoria Grizzlies, have 20 times the population of Powell River, finished first in the BC Hockey League Island division and cracked the top 20 Canadian Junior Hockey League rankings almost as many times as the Kings won games.
Grizzlies finished with 13 more wins than the Kings and dominated them during the season with a 6-2-0-1 record.
The games, however, still have to be played and oh how things have changed.
A problem for the Kings this year has been the erratic schedule. While playing just two games in the last two weeks allowed them to get somewhat healthy, rust became a problem.
This was clearly evident in game one in Victoria where the Kings had a problem getting up to playoff speed in the 5-2 loss.
Neither team was particularly hungry but the Grizzlies pleased a scant Friday night crowd of 983 to get out to 4-0 at the end of two periods. Shots to that point were 22-14 for Victoria.
Kings outscored the Grizzlies 2-1 in the third period on goals by JP Villeneuve and Landon Robin and despite losing the first game, finished on a positive note.
This was definitely a wake-up call for the Kings to bring more intensity to game two.
Kings surrendered the first goal to the Grizzlies at 3:24 of the first period on Saturday but that was just about the only mistake they made in a much better effort.
Luke Nogard tied it 1-1 at 3:49 and Evan Richardson converted a perfect slap pass from the point on the powerplay from Jordan Benton at 18:25.
Captain Teagan Waugh got the insurance goal at 11:57 of the middle period, then the Kings really got to work.
They’ve recently blown a couple of leads in games but in this one, even killed off an almost two-minute five-on-three late in the game to hold on for the 3-1 win.
Securing at least one win on the road meant the Kings got two home games in Powell River and a chance to win the series at Hap Parker Arena.
Six hundred faithful fans were on hand to see probably the best Kings performance of the year on Monday.
Villeneuve deserved his first star with two goals including a shorthanded one and Drew Dorantes added a third in the last period to give the Kings a convincing 3-0 win and a 2-1 lead in the series.
Once again the Kings ably defended the lead, holding the Grizzlies to 14 shots, and Jonah Imoo was good when he had to be for the shutout.
“Thanks to the guys,” Imoo said. “They were unreal in front of me blocking shots, they were great on the penalty kill, and didn’t let much through to me but what did were pretty basic saves.”
“It’s a work in progress,” said coach and general manager Kent Lewis, tongue in cheek. “It’s two more days together that nobody thought we would ever have. We want to relish in that, we want to enjoy that and go and play hard for each other. Tonight we didn’t give a lot. Our special teams’ kill was good but our powerplay was not. We’re playing a good hockey club and we just have to compete.”
Game four results on Tuesday night were not available at press time. However, the Kings have given themselves a very good chance against the Grizzlies.
