The Kings were fortunate to 'eek' out a 4-3 victory over the Trail Smoke Eaters on Friday night.
Neither team seemed to be clicking in this game but the Kings were the more opportunistic and got some key goals from the game's first star Bradley Parker.
Matt Dupont was nursing an injury and his spot on the JP Villeneuve, Drew Dorantes line was filled by Parker who took advantage of the mini promotion and racked up three points.
Play started quite scrambly for both sides with neither recording many shots or even getting good chances to take them.
Trail broke the deadlock at 7:46 on a 3 on 2 and with the puck bouncing around in front of the Kings' net Scott Davidson found it and fired it through traffic to give the Smokies the lead.
Parker evened it when he got the puck in the left corner and fired the puck at the net from an impossible angle and beat Stanwood high on the shortside at 11:40.
Kings took the lead at 16:57 on the powerplay on a funny play that saw Benton wind up for a one timer but his stick snapped in two but Hiff picked up the loose puck and his low shot from the slot gave the Kings a 2-1 lead after one period.
Parker continued his inspired play after that when he rang one off the post and then defensively made a nice block on a dangerous shot from the point.
The Kings stretched the lead to 3-1 at 2:44 of second when Parker took a nice feed from Villeneuve and on a partial breakaway slipped the puck through the five hole.
The Kings had a number of chances to open up the game but when they didn't, Trail came right back on the powerplay at 14:18 and scored on a neat backdoor pass.
Leading 3-2 going into the final period, the Kings got the two goal cushion back on a two on one where Parker slipped a nice pass over to Villeneuve and he blew a shot high on the blocker side at 3:51.
Trail, however, kept working hard and made it exciting near the end when, on a 2 on 1, Davidson ripped a shot off the crossbar (the goal light even went on) and on the rebound McMullen found the net behind Imoo at 15:22.
The Kings recovered to eventually hold off the Smokies for the remainder of the game and were helped in their effort by a too many men call with 1:30 to go.
Time outs were called by both clubs in the final seconds in a game that ended none too soon for the Kings.
With the injuries to Waugh, Paddock and Dupont, Kings' fans got to see affiliate Jarid Lukosevicius and newly acquired Landon Robin.
Robin wasn't quite ready to leave the Vernon Vipers but he was pleased to know he was coming to Powell River.
"I was a little bit shocked," he said, "but when I found out it was Powell River it was a lot better than some places I could have ended up."
"We just had too many guys on the roster," he explained, "and we had to cut down and I ended up being the odd guy out."
"I thought it went pretty good actually," he said of his first game with the Kings, "started off a little slow as a team but we got the job done."
The Kings head out for Nanaimo Saturday, and the Clippers will not be in a good mood as they lost in Victoria 6-1 Friday."
Armitage Mens Wear Three Stars:
1. Bradley Parker
2. J.P. Villeneuve
3. Djordje Leposavic
