The Powell River Kings scored early and in bunches as they used a good start to catapult them back into the win column, through a 4-1 victory over the Surrey Eagles on Saturday night at the Hap Parker Arena.
With a handful of bad starts this season, and a pair of games in recent weeks where opposition took the game to the Kings early, a quality opening few minutes was needed for Powell River. They got the start they wanted with some early pressure, and the first goal for the first time in 4 games as Nolan Krogfoss started, then finished a nice rush down the ice with a second effort to push past the goaltender, his first goal in Junior hockey and a 1-0 game.
Mitch Williams made it 2-0 less than 2 minutes later as Neal Samanski got a touch on a puck to hold the play at the blue line, with Williams skating in and cutting through the low slot area, burying on his second effort for his 14th and a 2-0 game through 20.
No scoring in the 2nd period, with the lone quality scoring chance belonging to Powell River with Ryan Brushett trying to float a puck over Cayden Bailey, who made a nice swinging stick save to knock it away and keep it a 2 goal deficit for the Eagles.
After a lengthy 2nd intermission thanks to the $10,000 Loonie Scramble, the Eagles came out and got a big goal early in the third, a powerplay marker as Holden Katzalay was allowed to walk in left side, beating three Kings en route to his 11th of the season. The Eagles pushed, but the Kings countered with less than 5 minutes remaining, on their first powerplay of the game Ben Thomas cycled off the wall and held through the slot, cherry picking his moment for his 8th of the year and a 3-1 advantage.
Ethan Kimball tacked on an empty netter, his 6th goal of the season, as the Kings won 4-1. Matteo Paler-Chow stops 25 in net, his 4th win of the year.
Josh Coblenz and Kyle Bodie joined Alex Rawnsley for the post game show
The Kings wrap this short 3-game stretch at the Hap with their third game in 5 days on Tuesday night, hosting the Nanaimo Clippers for a 7:00pm puck drop.
