Kings took advantage of a day off and a tired team to post a 5-1 win over the Langley Rivermen on Sunday afternoon.
Langley lost in Nanaimo on Friday and then in double overtime in Cowichan on Saturday before taking a bumpy boat ride to Powell River on Sunday morning.
If they thought the boat ride was bumpy it was to get downright rough in their 60 minutes versus the Kings.
Kings' Evan Richardson came out flying again in this game and he scored the first goal at 3:50 when his first shot came off the end boards and he banked it in on the second try.
Not to be outdone, linemate Scarth got the next one on a pretty tip off a Noah Henry shot that shot to the top of the net for a 2-0 lead at 9:45.
On to the second period and Scarth got his second when Richardson took the puck to the back of the net but back passed it to Scarth and he had nothing but net as the goaltender and D-man were still following Richardson. Really heads up and finished to a T at 12:30.
Langley got it's lone goal when Puskarich used a defenseman as a screen and beat Imoo to his glove side from the left wing at 15:42. Nice shot and in the top corner.
Kings bounced back with a shorthanded goal when two Kings rushed down the ice and Villeneuve dropped it to Dorantes on the wing and he flipped a soft pass up to Villeneuve in the corner where he swept around the net and tucked a beauty in on the short side at 18:48.
One more goal from the Kings at 7:14 by Jarryd Leung wrapped up the scoring and Jonah Imoo collected his second win in a row with 23 saves.
Another very solid effort for the Kings and certainly the return of so many players to the lineup had everyone in an upbeat mood.
"It's somewhat of a relief," said Hiff who welcomed his linemates Richardson and Scarth back, "but it's also something that the team really needed."
"Those are a couple of key guys for our team and that showed this week when they put up some big points for us and it resulted in a couple of good wins."
"Special teams were huge for us this week," he said of the powerplay and penalty kill, "our penalty kill was stellar and our powerplay is starting to click."
"When we're winning special teams we're winning games."
That and sticking to the things practiced in practice are important too.
"Our game plan and our systems are huge and our coaches have been preaching pretty much the same thing all year so it's finding that consistency every night."
"When we do that," he said, "we're successful."
It sure worked this weekend.
Armitage Mens Wear Three Stars:
1. Matt Scarth
2. Evan Richardson
3. J.P. Villeneuve
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