After picking up two massive points at home on Wednesday against the Capitals the Kings would turn their attention to the Victoria Grizzlies looking to pick up another important W.
The Grizzlies got the scoring started 4:06 into the game as Noah Liebl chipped the puck pass a Kings D-man at the Victoria blue line and went in on a 2 on 1 with Luc Pellitier who buried the cross ice feed to give the Grizzlies the early lead. The Kings would answer back later in the period off a faceoff win in the offensive zone Nathan Small would fire a wrister from the blue line and the puck would be deflected by Nolan Krogfoss and into the back of the net. The goal would be Nolan’s 4th of the season and his first since November 12th ending a 19 game goalless drought as the Kings and Grizzlies would be tied after the first period.
The Kings would carry their momentum into the second period and capitalize 36 seconds in Cole Schwebius would stop a Jason Marsella point shot, the rebound came to Nic Porchetta who fired it on goal and the rebound from that shot would come to Anthony Lucarelli who put in into the open cage for his 12th of the season and to give the Kings a 1 goal lead. The Kings would keep on pressing for the equalizer but Schwebius would stop 18 shots in the second to keep his team in close.
The Grizzlies would get the game tied up 13:24 into the third after the Kings had a couple scoring chances Matthew Wood would start a rush with Devon deVries and from the right wing Wood would find deVries alone at the net front who tipped in the puck to tie the game a 2 to help send the game to overtime.
The Kings would have the best opportunity in OT as they would get a power play in the extra frame. They would have a couple good looks but were unable to beat Schwebius and this game would need a shootout.
This would be the first shootout for the Kings since October at the BCHL Showcase when they beat the Wenatchee Wild 3-2 for their first win of the season. The first 7 shooters of the shootout would all fail to score and the game was on the stick of Grizzlies forward Kalen Szeto who had a chance to win it and he made the most of his opportunity beating Brice on the blocker side to give the Grizzlies the victory.
Zak Brice would make 35 saves in the loss as he continues to play lights out for the Kings while Cole Schwebius would make 53 saves. Caleb Parkhouse 7 game point streak came to an end but Nic Porchetta was able to push his to 6 with the assist on the Anthony Lucarelli goal.
Despite the loss the Kings do pick up a crucial point as they jump one ahead of the Capitals who lost to Surrey and now sit 8th with a record of 13-27-7-1. The Express beat Langley for their 4th win in a row and continue to solidify their playoff hopes now 4 points up on the Kings for 7th in the Coastal Conference.
The Kings will have two crucial games at home to Coquitlam next weekend but before that the Kings still have one more matchup with the Grizzlies which will take place tonight at 7pm.
