Fans who headed for their cars to beat the rush home following Jarid Lukosevicius’ “winner”, missed a goal of the season candidate from Jacob Pritchard, as the Kings had the rare feat of scoring TWO overtime game winners on Friday night. Despite Jarid Lukosevicius’ effort being waved off, Jacob Pritchard gave the fans that remained a stellar end to the hockey game and a 4-3 Kings victory on home ice to extend the win streak to 3.
- Lesson learned from tonight…always stay for the 3-star selections, then fight the traffic home.
- Why was the goal reversed? Kurt Keats had his visor knocked off in the passage of play leading up to the goal. Without the visor (part of the helmet), Keats was deemed an ineligible player and by touching the puck should have bought play to a halt and a 2-minute penalty…just as a player touching the puck without a helmet would have. The infraction wasn’t caught until after Luko had scored, and you can see in the highlight above that Keats makes a b-line for the dressing room immediately after a quick celebration. The right call on the ice was made, it’s unfortunate that it happened when it did, but it gave the Kings fans an extra bit of entertainment on the evening. Not a bad night when you get to celebrate a win twice, and thankfully the Kings got that 2nd opportunity. We might be having a different conversation on the decision had the Kings not gotten a bonus point.
- The win came about of some beautiful work from Jacob Pritchard who has really come into his own in the last couple of weeks. You can start to see his dominance on the puck and his skill shining through. Whether there was an adjustment period from the USHL to the BCHL or not, he’s been very good the last few weeks and is providing the Kings another scoring option outside of Keats and Luko.
- Speaking of those three, all extended their point streaks to 6 games.
- The OT win came on the back of a poor opening 20 that bought about a lot of frustration from the fans, and rightly so. The Kings were slow, slack and playing the part of a team that hadn’t played a game in 7 days. If not for Stefan Wornig, it’s easily a 4-0 game (at best) through 20 minutes.
- On Wornig, probably his best 60 this season. The 3 that beat him were quality chances and ‘nice’ goals, certainly the 2nd (through a screen) and 3rd (Hirose cut in and bar-down) were the pick of the bunch. He made some ‘flukey’ saves, which as a goaltender you love…but he made some quality blocks as well, turning aside 2-on-1’s and a breakaway in the 2nd on the talented Hirose. In talking with him after the game, the normally reserved Wornig was all smiles and full of confidence after the win.
- The win was his 2nd of the season and 1st this year in overtime after going 0-3 in the extra session. He’s still yet to lose in regulation and in speaking with him on the topic this season, and then again after the game…the OT win is a good monkey off his back.
- There was a considerable ‘wake-up’ in the 2nd, sparked by Keats’ 20th of the season. A little win was taken out of the sails by the pair from Salmon Arm, but a Burns point shot, then another Keats tally understandably gave the Kings life. I’m not sure if it’s ‘cocky’ to think this, but down 2 didn’t feel like a massive concern as this team has shown repeatedly they can battle back. How did they, and do they do that? By playing the right way and we started to see a better forecheck, more hits, more traffic and more “Kings hockey” after the 3-3 goal.
- Keats with his 20th and 21st joins a pretty select club over the last few years. The Kings are typically a more defence-first team, however this year’s offensive explosion (more by necessity than design) means Keats becomes the 5th player in the last 3 seasons to reach 20 goals. JP Villeneuve scored 24 in 54 in 12/13. Then the Kings had 3 players last year achieve the mark, Drew Dorantes (29 in 53), Jarid Lukosevicius (26 in 57) and Luke Nogard (22 in 55). Keats just missed last year with 19. Right now 5 Kings are on pace for 20+ goal seasons: Keats, Luko, Pritchard, Hiff and Lashuk.
- Jarid Lukosevicius and Kurt Keats now sit 3rd and 4th in league scoring after Friday night with 34 and 33 points respectively. Keats is 2nd (behind Coquitlam’s Corey Mackin) in the goal scoring race and tonight eclipsed his scoring mark from last season (19-33-55). It’s been a more puck-possessive Keats this season that’s had a shoot-first mentality, and that’s paid off big time with 21 goals in 23 games…with several of those goals “BIG” ones to spark a rally or give the Kings a lead.
- The out of town scoreboard helped out as well. While Alberni won, Victoria beat Nanaimo while Trail beat Cowichan. This means the gap between the 1st placed Clippers is now only 5 (with a game in hand), but the gap between 4th place Victoria and 5th place Cowichan extends to 15.
Here’s what Brock Sawyer had to say in the post-game show:
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Three Stars of the Game
- Kurt Keats (Kings) – 2 goals
- Stefan Wornig (Kings) – 37 saves, 2nd win
- Andrew Farney (Silverbacks) – 1 assist
Fortis BC Energy Player of the Game: Jeremy LeClerc
The Kings are right back at it Saturday night at the Hap, a 5:00pm start against the Victoria Grizzlies who defeated the Nanaimo Clippers on Friday night to help out the division and get the Kings within 5 of the division leading Clippers.
