Weekend Recap is presented by Iris Optometry | Photo by Alicia Baas
After a week and four games away from home, the Kings returned to the Hap for a doubleheader against the Langley Rivermen.
On Friday the scoring wouldn’t start until the third period when Keaton Oakley would score off the rush 2:20 into the period to give the Rivermen the lead. Oakley would make it 2-0 on a power play goal later in the period, then Luke Monroe would add another power play marker late in the game to make it 3-0 which would end up being the final score. It would be the first time the Kings have been shutout this season, but it wasn’t for the fate of trying as the Kings put 40 shots towards the Langley net, but all were stopped by Ajeet Gundarah who stopped all 40 of them for his first shutout of the season.
The rematch would go down on Saturday night and the Riv continued right where they left off scoring 3:30 into the period when Nick Messina would move in on a 2 on 1, he would shoot it past Kyle Metson to give Langley the lead. The Kings would finally get a goal vs the Rivermen midway through the period on the man advantage when Jack Blanchett to unleash the one time past Langley goalie Taje Gill who was making his first BCHL start. The goal would be Blanchett’s third of the season. The Kings would take the lead at 15:18 after a Casey Aman wrist shot hit two Langley players on its way to the net and past Gill for the captain’s first of the season. Langley would tie it up in the final minute of the period when Tyler Chan would hop on a lose puck in the slot and fire it home to even the score after two periods.
Things would start to get heated very early into the second period when Caleb Bentham would hit Keaton Oakley into the corner boards which caused a commotion, and would end up see Bentham be given a game misconduct for checking from behind as the Kings would have to play with five defenceman the rest of the way. The hit would set the tone for the rest of the period as the rough stuff would carry on. No goals were scored but both teams combined for 52 penalty minutes as they remained tied after two periods.
The Kings would get the scoring started just 24 seconds into the third after Cam Symons cross ice pass in the offensive zone hit a Langley play and went right to Will Jones who quickly put the puck on net and it beat Gill top corner for his first BCHL goal and to give the 3-2. Shortly after after Tanner Attew would hit Marcus Dashevsky which Carter Cochrane took exception to and went after Attew. Cochrane would get some punches on Attew and would be assed a fighting major and a game misconduct, which meant the Kings would now be down two players for the rest of the game. Since Cochrane was the only one with the fighting major the Rivermen would see them selves with a 5 minute major power play, which a huge opportunity to not only tie it, but take the lead. They would get off to a hot start on the man advantage just six seconds in when Vitaly Levvy would tip in an Andrej Kovacevic shot to tie it at three. After that the Kings 3rd ranked penalty kill bared down a didn’t allow any more opportunities on the power play. The Kings would get themselves a power play of their own later on, they would be unable to score on it, but did score right after when Parker Lalonde netted his 4th of the season to give the Kings the lead. The one goal lead would turn to two with 6 minutes to play when Anthony Lucarelli tried to pass the puck to Cam Symons, but it hit Walker Gelbard of Langley and went right back to Lucarelli who took it to the net and made a great move in tight to score his second goal of the season to make it 5-3. Branden Toye would ice it with an empty netter as the Kings get their first win at home with a 6-3 victory.
The Kings would fire 41 shots on net, which marked the fourth straight game they have reached the 40 shot mark. Kyle Metson made 26 saves for his second win of the season, while Casey Aman finished with a 3 point night.
The Kings now have a record of 4-8-1-0 as they now hit the road for 5 games, starting with a three game lower mainland road trip that will see them play the Eagles, Express, and Rivermen. The trip begins Friday at 7pm against the 10-2-0-0 Surrey Eagles.
The following weekend will see the Kings make stops in Salmon Arm and Chilliwack before returning home for an 8 game home stand which will start November 18 & 19 with a double header with the Victoria Grizzlies.
