The Kings will look to celebrate New Years Eve a few hours early with a win over the Alberni Valley Bulldogs at the Hap Parker Arena. Here’s the rundown:
The Vitals
Game: Alberni Valley Bulldogs vs Powell River Kings
Arena: Hap Parker Arena
Puck Drop: 5:00pm
Broadcast: Starting at 4:40pm on 95.7 SunFM
The Numbers
Kings This Season vs Bulldogs: 2-1-0-0
Last Meeting: Kings def Bulldogs 4-1 (December 2nd in Alberni)
Kings at Home: 11-2-1-1
Kings Last 10: 6-3-0-1
Bulldogs on the road: 5-9-1-0
BulldogsLast 10: 2-7-1-0
The Setup for the Kings
The Kings will wrap up 2011 portion of the schedule with another New Years Eve game, and they will be missing some key personnel. Matt Scarth missed a few shifts in the 2nd period following a hit into the boards in which he struggled to get up from. He eventually skated to the bench, was assessed and deemed good to go and played 1 or 2 shifts late in the 2nd, then his full compliment in the 3rd.
Not so lucky was Daniel Schuler, who missed the entire 3rd period. In the post-game show, Geoff Grimwood wasn’t sure what the injury was, didn’t want to throw out the word concussion, but there was concern Daniel may have been injured on the play and was sat out because of that. I haven’t recieved an update on Daniel as of this posting. Still out for tonight’s contest will be captain Chris Williams, who is serving the 2nd game of his 2-game suspension for the hit from behind misconduct against Salmon Arm, and Tanner Cochrane, still healing from a fractured collar bone. We noted this on the broadcast on Thursday, but Tanner may be back much sooner than thought. He had the arm re-examined over the break and it appears he could be back next weekend or the one after, as opposed to the late-January that was originally projected.
In net, Sean Maguire was solid for the team in Coquitlam. He made some great stops on breakaway chances and did everything he could do to help his team win the game. Again, no confirmation from the coaches, but I’d imagine Phillips would start tonight for purely rotational reasons and potentially a matchup reason. Jamie has been in net for both Kings wins against the Bulldogs this year.
The Setup for the Bulldogs
The Bulldogs got an early Christmas present, of sorts. They got a new coach, replacing Paul Esdale with Kevin Willison at the beginning of December. The last-place (in the Coast) Bulldogs haven’t been able to turn it around as of yet under new management, going 2-3-1-0 since the change in command, with the 2nd of those wins coming last night against the Grizzlies in Victoria. A real break has begun to form in the Coastal Conference, as 6 points seperate 6th (Victoria) and 7th (Langley), with the Bulldogs a further 2 points back. The Dogs do have games in hand, and winning those gets them right back in the hunt, will that begin tonight?
Dylan Nowakowski, Justin Morello and Josh Mitchell provide the bulk of the scoring, but it’s been the supporting cast that has done the damage against the Kings this year, with the Kalashnikov brothers each scoring, and Brandon Adams and Chase Van Allen chipping in goals. For the Dogs to win those games in hand, the Morello’s and Nowakowski’s must produce. In the last game against the Kings, Dylan Nowakowski must have been waved out of at least 10 faceoffs, and that’s not conducive to putting points on the board.
In net, there is no number 1, and the Kings have seen both Max Fenkell and Matt Larose this season. In fact, in his first game with the Bulldogs since coming from Trail, Larose beat the Kings and stole the show. Since then there hasn’t been much success and that will be a facet of the game that needs to be improved if the Dogs think they can make the post-season.
On the Broadcast
Very excited to debut Josh Statham on the broadcast tonight during our 2nd intermission. We’ll talk the NHL and some of the hot topics in the league this season. It’s the start of a new series we’ll have for you in the 2nd intermission of every home game this season. In the 1st intermission, we’ll have another episode of RBC Contenders, with the Wisconsin Wilderness of the SIJHL.
