The Kings took a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven Island Division Final series with a solid road game on Friday night, turning to five different scorers en route to a 5-1 win.
A fast start from the Grizzlies as the Kings displayed some bus legs out of the gate, with Victoria first to many pucks and quicker out of battles along the boards. The Kings held the fort however and survived a tough opening five minutes, then turned on the jets and began to pull away. A rush down the left wing through Nick Abbott resulted in a saucer pass across the blue line to a pinching Carmine Buono who skated in and deked on goaltender Kurtis Chapman, Buono’s 1st of the playoffs and a 1-0 lead. The score stayed 1-0 through the remainder of the period with the both teams getting good chances on goal and shots 12-9 Victoria.
Into the 2nd and the Kings came out the hungrier team but didn’t have anything to show for it until midway through when Ben Berard batted home a rebound from the base of the post on a Carmine Buono point shot, Berard’s 5th of the playoffs and a 2-0 lead. The Kings then found themselves in penalty trouble, with both Ethan Kimball and Ben Thomas finding themselves in the box on the same play, and the Grizzlies to a full 2:00 5-on-3. The Kings killed it despite many good Victoria chances, and then went straight on the attack as Neal Samanski fired on net with the rebound kicked right back to his stick, where he fired over to Ben Thomas at the side of the goal for his 1st in the playoffs and a 3-0 Kings lead. Shots 9-8 Victoria in the period, 21-15 through 40.
The third period began to see the intensity ramp up and the game more closely resemble the expected tough, physical series. Again the Kings added more salt to the wounds of the Grizzlies as Carter Turnbull broke in down the right side, cut in to goal and beat Kurtis Chapman on a rebound to make it 4-0. The game worsened for the Grizzlies as Chapman was injured on the play when a Grizzlies player crashed into him on the scoring play. Chapman was forced to leave, and in came Zach Rose who started the playoffs for the Grizzlies before being subbed out after going 0-2 against the Bulldogs.
Victoria got a goal late through Ethan Nother to get on the board, but it was cancelled out with 18 seconds left through an empty netter by Josh Coblenz and the Kings skated away with a 5-1 win in game 1, taking a 1-0 series lead. Matteo Paler-Chow stopped 30 shots for his 4th win in the playoffs.
Here’s our Facebook Live postgame show with Brock Sawyer:
Three Stars of the Game
1. Matteo Paler-Chow (Kings) – 30 saves, 4th win
2. Carmine Buono (Kings) – 1 goal, 1 assist
3. Nathan Kelly (Kings) – 1 assist
The Kings and Grizzlies lock up for game 2 of the series at the Q Centre on Saturday night. The game will be live on 95.7 CoastFM and HockeyTV, as well as shown on the big screen at the Carlson Club in Powell River. Tickets for games 3 and 4 are available online via http://tickets.powellriverkings.com or at the Kings office 1-4 on Saturday, then from 9:30 to puck drop on game days.
