The Powell River Kings (20-10-1-0) held a three-goal lead over the Chilliwack Chiefs (20-8-4-0) heading into the third period Friday night, but a wild third period saw the Kings hold on and leave Prospera Place with the 5-3 victory.
Ben Berard opened the scoring for the Kings with his fourth of the season off a face-off 4:22 into the game. Gerard dug the puck loose out of the skates of Aaron O’Neil and wired a wrist shot past Mark Sinclair.
In the second the Chiefs tied the game on a power play. Kohen Olishefski took a centring pass from Jordan Kawaguchi on the goal line and fired a wrist shot over the glove of Brian Wilson.
The Kings would add three goals late in the second period to take a big lead into the third.
First it was Liam Lawson taking a breakaway pass from Curtis McCarrick and went five hole on Sinclair.
Just over a minute late Cam Donaldson perfectly deflected a pass in from Tristan Mullin on a two-on-one rush, off the post, off the crossbar and in to make it 3-1.
A little over two minutes later, another two-on-one rush featuring Donaldson and Mullin saw Donaldson feeding the puck to Mullin who rifled a wrist shot over Sinclair to make it 4-1.
The goal saw the Chiefs make a goalie change as Brendan Barry came in, but at the start of the third Sinclair would return to the net.
In the third the Chiefs really found their game. They kept the Kings in their own end for what seemed like minutes at a time, and got a power play goal eight minutes into the frame.
The Chiefs boldly elected to pull their goaltender for an extra attacker while on the power play and with 12 minutes left in the period. The plan worked however as Tommy Lee jammed home a rebound to cut the lead down to 4-2.
Three minutes later Davis Bunz let a one timer fly from the left point that eluded all the traffic in front and beat Wilson to make it a one-goal game.
Once it was down to 4-3 the Kings seemed to kick things back into high gear and had some offensive chances of their own. The finally capitalized with just over three minutes left in the game.
Mullin and Donaldson had another odd man rush and Mullin was stopped streaking down the middle of the ice. The rebound was gathered up by the Chiefs, but they turned the puck over to Jonny Evans at the left face-off circle and he ripped home a wrist shot to give the Kings the 5-3 lead.
Chilliwack pulled their goalie again with a minute left, but couldn’t generate offence as the Kings held on for the 5-3 win.
Saturday the Kings roll into Penticton to take on the Vees (23-5-1-0). For the first time this season, the Vees have lost back to back games.
The two teams played once this season already, the Kings home opener in which Penticton won 3-1.
