Kings finally stopped the Express in their tracks on Thursday night with an impressive 3-1 win.
Cole Huggins was huge in the Express net or the score might have been higher and out of reach by the end of the first period.
As it was the Kings were stymied by his glove and big saves on Richardson and Adair.
Something got under the skin of Schmidt and Atkinson as after a brief exchange Atkinson snuck in an upper cut that dropped Schmidt to the ice.
Scoreless after one but outshooting the Express 14-3, Kings kept the pressure on and were finally rewarded on one of Williams' vintage rushes.
He raced down the right wing and spotted Richardson who threw it over to Adair and he one timed a perfect shot by Huggins at 4:02.
More of the same for the remainder of the second and the first half of the third as the Kings controlled much of the play five on five.
In the middle of the final period, Kings got into some penalty trouble with three calls against them so the penalty killers were feeling it.
They responded with a great effort and Schmidt almost scored a shorthanded goal but Huggins stopped him.
Just after that Justin Georgeson had Maguire at his mercy but number 35 threw out the glove and picked off the shot headed for the top corner.
With Teagan Waugh off with two minutes to play, Express pulled their goalie for a 6 on 4 advantage but Schmidt picked up a loose puck and scored the empty netter from the Kings blueline.
Sean Maguire, who was celebrating his birthday, almost picked up the shutout but with 12 seconds to go a point shot through traffic slid by him to make it 2-1.
Brendon MacDonald grabbed a loose puck off the ensuing face-off and whirled to shoot on the vacated Express net for a final 3-1 win.
After the game Maguire said, "the boys are blocking lots of shots, making lots of sacrifices and winning eight games in a row proves it."
"It's a big sacrifice to put your body in front of the puck and Paddock back in the lineup, he's probably the lead shot blocker on the 'PK' and shot blocking in general."
"They probably have the best powerplay in the league, next to probably Penticton," Maguire said, "but the penalty kill was on fire tonight and as of late we've been working on it and it's been paying off."
Of his highlight reel save he said, "he had me beat – I'd committed to the shortside and he shot it farside and I just quickly got my glove up there and got it."
"Just got it barely," he laughed, "I was surprised and I had to look back at my glove to see if it was actually in there."
A big win to start the week with two more to go in Nanaimo on Friday and Victoria on Saturday.
Don't forget the Beatles on Saturday and bring your friends and family for this Kings fundraiser.
Ron Armitage Mens Wear Three Stars:
1. Sean Maguire
2. Cole Huggins
3. Jon Jutzi
