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Smith, Kings Perfect Against Caps

Jeff Smith earned his 21st victory of the season, and his third shutout with a 21 save performance for the Powell River Kings on Friday night, as the team defeated the Cowichan Valley Capitals 4-0.

It had been since late November since the last meeting between these two teams and it showed in the opening period with a sense of feeling each other out through 20. The period itself was scoreless and shots were 10-9 Cowichan through the frame despite a solid start and the bulk of the offensive pressure through the opening 5 minutes. Both teams played it relatively safe, neither wanting to make a mistake.

Into the 2nd period and the game began to open up and more in Powell River’s favour. The deadlock was broken when Jonny Evans got a turned over puck just outside the blue line and went 2-on-1 with Carter Turnbull, out waiting the Cowichan defenceman to slide it over to Turnbull for his 19th of the season. The Kings doubled the lead four minutes later with Jeremy LeClerc power driving the net for his 8th.

The Kings outshot the Capitals 14-4 in the period and led by a 2-0 score through 40. The team continued to press in the third with Austin Kamer opening up a 3-0 lead and putting the game beyond reach for Cowichan. A fourth goal came on the man advantage with Rylan Ball scoring and it was a 4-0 final.

Post-game thoughts:

  • The Kings go 1/6 on the man advantage and killed off all three penalties they took, however two of those were on the clock as time expired in the third period. The Kings managed the game well, didn’t take many unnecessary penalties and allowed Cowichan to occupy the penalty box. The Caps are one of the league’s most penalised teams and Powell River didn’t try and change that tonight.
  • Just the second time this season the Kings haven’t ‘out-penaltied’ the Caps. Despite the season numbers, Cowichan had taken the same or fewer penalties than the Kings in 5 of the previous 6 matchups.
  • The line of Rauser-Findlater-Kamer had a great game tonight, generated some scoring chances are worked hard every shift. The trio had an outstanding shift in the second period with sustained offensive pressure as the team completed a full offensive zone line change. The Kings eventually got a whistle and came back to score the very next shift with the Turnbull goal and eventual game winner.

Here’s what Brock Sawyer and Jeremy LeClerc had to say in the post game show:

Three Stars of the Game

  1. Jeff Smith (Kings) – 21 saves
  2. Carter Turnbull (Kings) – 1 goal, game winning goal
  3. Jeremy LeClerc (Kings) – 1 goal

With the win, the Kings extend their lead ahead of Cowichan to 7 points, however Cowichan retains a game in hand. The Kings were also able to close the gap on Nanaimo thanks to the Clippers losing in regulation with that now just 9 points with 3 games in hand over Nanaimo. The magic number to clinch a playoff spot goes down to 1.5 as well.

Powell River and Cowichan square off for the 8th and final time this regular season on Saturday night, a 5:00pm start at the Hap Parker Arena.