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Findlater Scores, Kings Beat Grizzlies 4-1

In his 57th game as a King in Powell River, Hunter Findlater scored his first goal in front of his home town. It stood up as the game winner as the Kings earned a 4-1 win over the Victoria Grizzlies on Family Day Monday.

A slow start from the Kings who failed to capitalise on the energy put out by over 1200 in attendance at the free Family Day contest at the Hap Parker Arena. However after a sluggish open 2-3 minutes, Powell River came alive and broke the deadlock through a two-on-one rush down the ice with Tristan Mullin and Kyle Betts. Betts finished, his 19th of the season and a 1-0 lead.

1:06 later, after a season and a half of trying to score his first in his home town, Hunter Findlater pounced off a big rebound off the end wall from an Adam Brubacher slap shot and found the back of the net for a 2-0 lead and one of the biggest ovations this season. Victoria would score on the powerplay late in the period and the Kings led 2-1 after 20 minutes.

Adam Brubacher scored in the 2nd period, firing a puck towards the net after some good work by Jonny Evans and Carter Turnbull behind the net. The shot grazed off a Grizzlies forward in front and found the back of the net. Jonny Evans added an empty net goal in the 3rd period with 26 remaining, a 4-1 win and a perfect 3-for-3 weekend.

Jeff Smith went the distance, stopping 29 Victoria shots for his 23rd win of the season.

Game thoughts:

  • As noted, Hunter Findlater took 57 games to score his first goal at home. It was the 7th of his career and his 4th of the season but all had come on the road. As Hunter notes in the post game video below, it’s fitting it comes against Victoria considering his performance in the Grizzlies during the 2013/2014 playoffs.
  • Jeff Smith goes 3-0 on the weekend, a 0.33GAA and a .986 sv%. The only one that gets past him was a perfect redirect from the side of the net on a shot going well wide. It was a tip that’d miss the net or hit the goaltender probably 8 times out of 10, but Conlon got it right. Smith was made to work late, the Grizzlies pushed hard in the latter stages of the third, making a few point blank saves to preserve the lead.
  • A number of Kings are going streaking right now. Carter Turnbull saw a 5 game goal streak end, however extended his point streak to 6 games (5-4-9). Jonny Evans has his own 6-game point streak (5-5-10) going and has scored in his last two games. Kyle Betts has points in his last 4 (4-4-8), and 9 of his last 11 (9-7-16) and Rylan Ball has 2-3-5 in his last 4 as well. Finally, Tristan Mullin isn’t necessarily ‘streaking’ with points in his last 2, but in the 15 games so far in 2016, Mullin has scored in 9 of them, 8 being multi-point games (9-9-18).

Here’s Hunter Findlater and Brock Sawyer in the post game show:

Three Stars of the Game:

  1. Jeff Smith (Kings) – 29 saves, 23rd win
  2. Carter Turnbull (Kings) – 1 assist
  3. Adam Brubacher (Kings) – 1 goal, 1 assist

The Kings wrap a nine game home stand next weekend, hosting the Chilliwack Chiefs on Friday night and the Salmon Arm Silverbacks Sunday afternoon.