On a night that featured Quality, as in Quality Foods, Powell River was also treated to a quality game by their Kings.
A crowd of over 1300 watched the Kings come out flying at the opening faceoff and eventually win to force a seventh game on Monday night in Vernon.
A scoreless first period was anything but dull as the two teams went back and forth with the Kings getting the better chances to open the scoring.
Powell River solved Vernon netminder Gordon right off the faceoff in period two. Kings won it, took the puck deep behind the Vernon net and Niddery threw the puck into the slot where Brenden Forbes slammed it home. It took just 11 seconds for the Kings to do that.
The excitement had barely passed when the Kings' Rainaldi was off for tripping. Vernon got a little careless on the point and Bodie jumped on a loose puck. He went down on the two on one and patiently waited until Gordon went down before flipping the puck over him for a 2-0 Kings lead at 1:37.
The onslaught continued at 4:18 when Mitch Labreche finished off a pretty neat play.
Bodie threw a high shot from the point that Forbes gloved down in front of the net then, all in one motion, backhanded a pass to Labreche who put it into the net from the top of the crease.
The Kings' scoring ended at 9:01 on the powerplay with Bodie working hard on the boards, then it was 9 to 10 to 11. Garbowsky hit Pettitt with a pass who centered to Carr who was in the right place at the right time.
Kings did get a little complacent after their four goal spree and Vernon rapped a couple of pucks off posts but the Kings also hit two posts and a crossbar off the same net after the teams changed ends for the third period (should someone check those posts?).
Cody Rainaldi, like he did earlier in the series, clearly beat new Vernon netminder Voth from 40 feet with a bullet but dinged it off the crossbar and out.
Kiings weren't as efficient in shutting down the Vipers with the lead this time and Vernon did come back to score a couple early in the third.
Kent Lewis called a time out with 6:44 to go and it seemed to settle the team down to the point where Chad Niddery finished the scoring at 19:21 into the empty net.
Captain Mat Bodie has certainly elevated his game in this series and although both teams are feeling the effects of a long series he said, “this is what it's all about.”
“I had a coach who passed away,” he said, “and his motto was play every game like it's your last one because one day it will be, so you play every game hard and hopefully the best happens.”
He certainly played game six as if it was and along the way met up with a former teammate, Connor Jones, who is also a fierce competitor.
“One of them (Jones twins) got me first and then I got him back and then he slashed me and we both went down – I couldn't tell you if it was Connor or Kellen the first time.”
“That's just the competitive nature coming out in two guys and I'm sure you'll see more of that in game seven,” he smiled.
The deciding game will be played at Wesbild Arena in Vernon on Monday, April 12 at 7:00 P.M.
Armitage Mens Wear Three Stars:
1. Brenden Forbes
2. Mat Bodie
3. Daniel Carr
