In a perfect world the Kings win the series against Cowichan, maximize the gate and do it without causing any stress on the hearts of some of our older fans.
This was a perfect series for the green and gold.
After stumbling in Cowichan in game four the two teams met on Thursday night at the Recreation Complex, however the outcome this time was a much happier one for the Kings.
Kings poured on the pressure, outshot the Caps 42-25, and spread out the six goals with two in each of the three periods to crush Cowichan.
Cody Rainaldi opened the scoring when he one timed a great pass from Ben Schmidt from behind the Caps net.
Bodie did a lot of the work on the next one as he dug the puck out of the crowd to Labreche who drilled a shot at Brossoit. He made the save but with only 48 seconds left in the period, Grant fired the puck high into the net from an impossible angle. What a shot!
In the second period Garbowsky hit Carr with a perfect pass and the sniper from Leduc went low glove to make it 3-0.
The crowd barely had time to settle down before the Kings pounced again.
Ben Schmidt was at it again as he razzle dazzled fans with one of a couple of great plays in the game.
He set up Rainaldi for his second of the game with a beautiful back pass down low that 44 made no mistake on, 4-0.
Schmidt also took off on his own during the period and instead of taking the outside route, danced through the middle of the two D-men and in on Brossoit where he hit the post with a hard shot.
One other sequence of note was MacDonald and DaSilva finally squaring off. DaSilva couldn't take it any more and the gloves came off deep in the Kings end of the rink. DaSilva landed a number of heavy punches from down under on the pest and let's just say both of them worked out a lot of their frustrations on each other.
The third period belonged to the Kings and the new playoff scoring leader in the BCHL, Matt Garbowsky.
He scored a couple of beauties to ice the Caps and wind up the series with a convincing 6-0 shutout.
Josh Watson didn't have a lot of shots but needed to be sharp as the Caps charged the net to ruin his shutout.
After the game assistant coach Shane Lukinchuk said, “Josh really hasn't had any bad starts all year.”
“He's given us a chance to win night in and night out and tonight he made a couple of big ones early. We gave them three breakaways early which is uncharacteristic of our club but Watson was there to meet the challenge.”
There were a number of clutch performances for the Kings but Schmidt may be the Kings who put in the most of them during the year. His work ethic and improvement is unbelievable and you get the feeling that the best is yet to come for number 17.
“It was a one on three really,” said Lucky, “and Benny turned his guy inside out, cut to the middle and hit the crossbar, bar down and had a great chance right after when Matt followed the play up and fed him a puck.”
“Both of Rainaldi's goals, him (Schmidt) and Forbesy right, cycling down low – their puck presence and possession was just fantastic. That's what we've been preaching to the guys and that is what is going to win you playoff games is puck possession.”
The Kings had possession for a good part of this game and they certainly owned the scoreboard 6-0 to make a statement to the rest of the Coastal Conference.
Cowichan finished the season on a nice 7-3-0 run and were touted as one of the possible surprises of the playoffs, but the Kings stuck to the plan and really looked good in winning the series 4-1.
Next up for the Kings is still anyones guess. The only remaining team they know they won't play is Nanaimo who, if they beat Victoria, will move on against Alberni.
Armitage Mens Wear Three Stars
1. Matt Garbowsky
2. Josh Watson
3. Cody Rainaldi
