For the second year in a row, and the fifth time in the last six years, the Powell River Kings and Nanaimo Clippers will meet in a BC Hockey League playoff series. It’s become somewhat of an annual tradition with these two teams facing off in March, with the Kings and Clipper splitting the previous four playoff matchups. Powell River has the most recent success in the playoffs, defeating the Nanaimo Clippers in 6 games during the 2018 BCHL Playoffs.
Season Series
Through 8 games in this regular season just gone, the Kings can lay claim to being the better team winning the series 6-2…however the Clippers still take positives out of those scorelines. Of the eight games the teams played, six were completed by Remembrance Day. The remaining pair saw the teams split with the home team winning each time.
September 15th: Kings def Clippers 4-2 (at Powell River)
September 29th: Kings def Clippers 5-2 (at Nanaimo)
October 21st: Kings def Clippers 2-1 (at Nanaimo)
October 27th: Kings def Clippers 4-1 (at Powell River)
November 11th: Clippers def Kings 5-3 (at Nanaimo)
January 29th: Kings def Clippers 5-4 (at Powell River)
February 23rd: Clippers def Kings 6-4 (at Nanaimo)
The Kings outscored the Clippers 31-23 and outshoot them 272 to 217. Powell River went 4-0 on home ice, while going 2-2 in Nanaimo.
Offence
The Kings had no shortage of offensive opportunities against Nanaimo this year with the Clippers very much a changing and learning team in the early portions of the season. This allowed a little more structured Kings team to take advantage and despite there being no real blowouts in the series, many games saw the Kings control the scoreboard for a large majority of the game.
For the Kings, Ryan Brushett led the way with 5 goals and 10 assists in the 8 games. Josh Coblenz also tallied 5 goals with 5 assists, while Ben Berard notched 5 goals and 3 assists despite only playing in 4 of the eight games due to injury. All total, the Kings had 20 different players score at least a point and 8 players to register five or more points.
Nanaimo’s scoring was a little thinner, but more spread out. Gunnar Wegleitner led the Clippers with 4 goals, however it was Ethan Scardina (2-6-8) and Sammy Steele (3-5-8) to lead the way overall. Rookie forward Tyler Williams finished in third with 2 goals and 4 assists. Nanaimo had 22 players to register at least a point but only had 3 players score five or more points.
Throughout the whole BC Hockey League season, Ryan Brushett finished top of the goal scoring rankings with 41 goals, the highest production by a Powell River Kings player since Matt Garbowsky in 2010/11 when he scored 44. Brushett finished 2nd in league point scoring as well, while Levi Glasman had 24-39-63 in 58 games which was good for a share of 9th overall.
Nanaimo’s Ethan Scardina was their leading scorer this season, finishing 24th overall in the BCHL with 26-30-56 in 54 games.
Defence
The Kings led the Island Division through the 2018/19 regular season in goals against, conceding just 180 (3.1/gm). By comparison the Nanaimo Clippers finished 14th overall in the BCHL for goals against with 213 and came ahead of West Kelowna, Cowichan and Surrey.
Through the eight game season series, the Kings conceded just 23 (2.875.gm) goals compared to the 31 (3.875/gm) that Nanaimo allowed. In terms of shots on goal, the Kings allowed 217 Nanaimo chances at just over 27 per game while Nanaimo’s 272 shots on goal against equates to 34 per game.
As for the defencemen chipping in offensively, Matt Rickard notched his first BCHL goal against Nanaimo at the end of September while also adding in 4 assists. Jayden Lee went 1-1-2 with a handful of others adding assists. Overall, Powell River’s blue liners had a combined 2-9-11 with Kyle Pow, Brenden Saether and Ethan Martini the only three to not register a point.
For the Clippers, Robby Drazner sat 7th in series scoring for the Clippers with 3 assists. Jordan Dawson and Aiden Hansen-Bukata notched goals with the blue liners chipping in 2-10-12 in the 8 games.
Goaltending
Mitch Adamyk shouldered the load for Powell River by starting 7 of the 8 games and going 5-2. He made 162 saves on 183 shots for a goals against average of 3.01 and a save percentage of .885. It was the last three games of the season series where Nanaimo was able to find chinks in the armor, allowing 14 goals in a win and two losses to the Clippers. Hayden Missler got the 8th start, winning it by stopping 33/34.
For Nanaimo, Jordan Naylor is the presumed number 1 guy after going 2-3 against the Kings this season with a 3.61 goals against average and an .883 save percentage. Naylor allowed 18 goals on 154 shots in just under 300 minutes with of work across the five games. The remaining 3 starts went to Landon Pavlisin who allowed 12 goals on 118 shots in three losses. His 0-3 record is matched with a 4.00 goals against average and .898 save percentage.
Special Teams
The Kings sport the better of the two powerplay percentages both overall and in the season series. Powell River finished first in the BCHL with a powerplay at 24.9%, 1.5% clear of second placed West Kelowna. The Kings 64 powerplay goals for was also a league best number. In the season series against Nanaimo, the Kings scored at least a goal in all 8 games, going 10/43 (23.25%).
Nanaimo countered with an 18.75% powerplay against Powell River this year, scoring 6 goals on 32 opportunities. Their overall season powerplay finished 8th in the BCHL at 21.1%, while the 45 goals the team scored on the man advantage had them 12th overall.
One area of concern for the Kings is a recent trend of penalties being given up. After having the league’s best penalty kill and fewest trips to the box through November and into December, the Kings percentages have nose dived while the trips made to the sin bin have sky rocketed. Since December 1st, the Kings are the 3rd most penalized team, while also seeing their penalty kill drop 10% to 78.5% overall. Nanaimo’s penalty kill was 75%, or 16th in the BCHL ahead of only Cowichan Valley.
What’s on the Line?
The two teams will open their battle on Friday, March 1st at Hap Parker Arena and play 7 games throughout the following 9 days. Should the series go the distance, it will end the following Sunday back in Powell River.
Game 1 – Nanaimo @ Powell River – Friday March 1st – 7:00pm – Hap Parker Arena
Game 2 – Nanaimo @ Powell River – Saturday March 2nd – 5:00pm – Hap Parker Arena
Game 3 – Powell River @ Nanaimo – Monday March 4th – 7:00pm – Frank Crane Arena
Game 4 – Powell River @ Nanaimo – Tuesday March 5th – 7:00pm – Frank Crane Arena
Game 5* – Nanaimo @ Powell River – Thursday March 7th – 7:00pm – Hap Parker Arena
Game 6* – Powell River @ Nanaimo – Friday March 8th – 7:00pm – Frank Crane Arena
Game 7* – Nanaimo @ Powell River – Sunday March 10th – 5:00pm – Hap Parker Arena
The first to four wins moves onto the Island Division Final against the winner of the Alberni Valley Bulldogs/Victoria Grizzlies series.
