The weekend recap is presented by Iris Optometry
After coming up short in their first two home games last weekend the Kings would head over to the island for two games to kick off their road schedule. The Kings faced a lot of adversity going into this trip as they played in two home openers and were without 3 key players in Parker Lalonde, Anthony Lucarelli, and Max Potvin.
The road trip would start in Nanaimo on Friday as the Kings would face the Clippers for the third straight game to start the season and for the second game in a row the Kings would score first with this one coming 3:36 in on a powerplay as Nic Porchetta put in a rebound off a Will Jones point shot for his second of the season. Charles Tardif would tie the game for the Clippers at 14:26 but the Kings would take the lead with under two minutes left when Marcus Dashevsky scored his 1st BCHL goal after he put in a rebound off a Casey Aman shot as the Kings took a 2-1 lead into the second.
In the middle period the Clippers would start to take control and would score two goals, first Skylar Cameron on a 4 on 3 powerplay at 5:57 then with 3 seconds remaining Mike Murtagh would jam away at the puck from the side of the goal and managed to poke it by Vanderkooi as the Clippers outshot the Kings 13-2 in the period and held a one goal lead.
The Kings would find their footing in the third and would start to make a comeback 5 minutes into the period as Caleb Bentham would score his first BCHL off a faceoff win in the offensive zone when his wrist shot found its way through traffic and hit the post and went in to the game. The tie wouldn’t last long as just 96 seconds later Marcus Dashevsky would score his second of the game on the power play after receiving a pass in the slot from Jack Blanchett. Like they did in the last game the Clippers would not go away and would tie it with under 3 minutes to play after Ethan Mistry’s shot from the side boards managed to sneak under the arm of Vanderkooi to tie the game. This game seemed destined to head into OT once again but the Kings had other plans as with 1:28 remaining Karter McNarland would take the puck over the blueline and toss it into the corner where Anthony Yu would pick up the puck and find Nic Porchetta who was going to the front of the net where he tipped in the pass for his second of the game and most importantly put the Kings in front. Yu would add and empty netter to seal the deal for the Kings as they would go on to win 6-4.
With the win the Kings picked up their first win of the season and ended a 13 game losing streak to the Clippers. Liam Vanderkooi would make 41 saves and get 1st star honours in his Kings debut while Marcus Dashevsky was named 2nd star with a 3 point night.
On Saturday the Kings would look to spoil another home opener, this time it was in Port Alberni against the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs would be the one to get on the scoreboard first when Will Elger shot the puck on net and shot went off the glove of Vanderkooi and right to Jules Boilard for his first BCHL goal and to give the dogs the early lead. The Kings would trail 1-0 after the first period and were outshot 14-4.
In the second the Kings would find their scoring touch and would score 3:04 in after Nic Porchetta poked the puck away from Braden Blace in the Bulldogs zone and found a wide open Ryder Ringor who fired a wrister passed Hobie Hedquist to tie the game. The Kings would take the lead 2:10 later of the man advantage when Ringor would make a centering pass to Anthony Yu who one timed it in for his 3rd goal in 3 games. Alberni would tie it back at two when Braden Blace would score at 8:18 after jamming in the puck from the side of the net. Midway through the period Nic Porchetta would receive a game misconduct and the Kings who started the game with 11 forwards would be down to 10, but that didn’t seem to stop the Kings as they would regain the lead at 12:37 when Aaron Neal deflected in a shot from Will Jones. Late in the period the Kings would find themselves on the power play but it was the Bulldogs who took advantage as Nic Beneteau would score shorthanded to even the score once again. 17 seconds later the Kings would go back in front when Colin MacDougall would unleash a shot from the slot passed Hedquist to give the Kings a 4-3 lead going into the 3rd.
As the third period began the Bulldogs were eager to tie the game and they would 5:53 in when Braden Blace scored his second of the game off a wrist shot from the point. After the Bulldogs tied it the Kings would once again get the lead back 3 minutes later on another power play that saw newly acquired forward Carter Cochrane put in a rebound to put the Kings back in the lead. This time the Kings would be able to hold the lead and defeat the Bulldogs 5-4.
Liam Vanderkooi was a rock in the Kings net once again making 39 saves while Ryder Ringor led the way offensively with 3 points. Porchetta, Jones, Yu, and MacDougall would all have multi point nights in the win.
Despite being outplayed the Kings found away to hang on and keep it close and take advantage of their oppotunities. The Kings would be outshot 91- 45 over both games but Liam Vanderkooi came up with 81 saves in the wins. The special teams also played a big role as the Kings would go 5 for 11 on the power play and 9 for 10 of the penalty kill. The offence on the weekend was led by Nic Porchetta and Anthony Yu who both had 2 goals and 2 assists.
The Kings will look to keep on rolling and win at the Hap for the first time this season when they host the Coquitlam Express for two games on Friday & Saturday. Get your tickets at tickets.powellriverkings.com both games will start a 7pm
Highlights from the weekend – powellriverkings.com/highlights
Post Game interviews with Brock Sawyer – powellriverkings.com/postgame-interviews
