To lose a game in which you dominate from 11 seconds on would have been a travesty.
The Kings avoided that predicament with some outstanding individual efforts late in the game and fought back from a 4-2 deficit to win 6-4.
Fans barely had time to settle into their seats before Nanaimo opened the scoring at 11 seconds.
Matt Scarth evened it up 1-1 on the powerplay at 6:16 and then he also got the 2-1 goal on nice centering pass from Kurt Keats at 8:27.
Clippers got a weak goal when a Bo Brauer cut across the ice and shot against the grain, hit the post and in behind Johan Imoo at 11:06.
They got the go-ahead goal when Colten Dahlen walked in from the point and hit the top corner on the powerplay.
His was the only goal of the second to lead 3-2 despite being outshot 30 – 20.
Clippers got their fourth goal in just 11 shots to start the third period at 3:31 but fortunately Imoo and the Kings stopped the bleeding and got to work on a comeback.
First it was Kurt Keats at 4:01 on a rebound, then at 11:53 Luke McCaw shovelled in a goal mouth scramble to tie 4-4 and then the league's leading scorer, Scarfo, put his team up with a wicked wrist shot from the high slot – top glove at 17:34.
Jarid Lukosevicius added an insurance goal at 18:46 when he stole a puck at the Clips blueline, undressed a defenseman and also went to Argue's glove to complete the scoring 6-4.
Great perserverence by a team that seemed to pay for every mistake it made. That, and a strong belief in each other and the practices they put in through the week paid off with a very impressive comeback win.
"We gave them two gimmes early tonight," said coach Kent Lewis, "and that put us behind the 8-ball and we were down 4-2."
"We outplayed the club badly but I thought our guys showed good perserverance and stuck with it."
For awhile it looked as though the eventual third star might be the first but Powell River snipers won the battle and the game.
Armitage Mens Wear Three Stars:
1. Kurt Keats
2. Matt Scarth
3. Jason Argue
