Kings Win Tight Battle with Bulldogs

The Kings held to a 1-0 lead through the bulk of a tense contest against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, taking a 3-1 win in the opening leg of a nine-game home stand.

Good jump and pace early with the Kings carrying the bulk of the play and out to an early shots advantage. The Kings looked the fresher of the two teams, controlling play in the offensive zone and not giving up too much the other way. By the time Kamer scored, the ice was pretty scuffed in the Bulldogs end and fairly clean around Stefan Wornig.
Great setup from Gavin Rauser on the first goal (above). The intercept of a pass by the penalty boxes, then getting out ahead of the traffic through the neutral zone to deliver a pass to Austin Kamer who showed some wheels to get in a good position. Nice finish too.
Through the rest of the first the Kings really took it to Alberni who didn’t show much. Kyle Betts had a good shot on a partial break but was denied. Jonny Evans was robbed point blank as well trying to bury a feed from behind the net. While the line of Findlater-Rauser-Kamer got the goal, McCarrick-Evans-Turnbull were probably the best trio offensively.
Into the 2nd and an early powerplay again generated chances but little finish for a Kings team which deserved a better fate. Brody Claeys was again very good in net for the Bulldogs as the Kings again took the game to Alberni but weren’t able to find the insurance. Even special teams time, a lot of it in the 2nd period wasn’t able to yield the insurance the Kings wanted and it stayed a 1-0 lead.
Into the 3rd and more of the same. The Kings continued to get looks and continued to be turned aside by either Brody Claeys or a lack of finish. A lot of times the Kings tried to execute that one extra pass or find that one more move but just weren’t able to get that 2nd one. Credit the Bulldogs who didn’t make it easy, the game still very much in the balance despite the Kings pressure. Overall the 3rd period very much went in waves. The Kings controlled the opening 5 minutes, the Bulldogs the next 5, then very much a battle down the stretch.
The Bulldogs 2nd powerplay of the game begin another scramble, not too dissimilar to Trail on Sunday. 3 goals in 2 minutes kickstarted by some good work shorthanded by Kyle Betts who, like he has many times before, used his speed to generate offence, this time beating his d-man wide and tucking past Claeys. Finally the insurance the Kings needed.
The comfort was short-lived. Alberni continue on the powerplay, pull the goaltender to make it 6-on-4 and finally beat Stefan Wornig as Ryan Finnegan buried a puck in tight after a mad scramble around the goal to cut the lead to 2-1. The Kings put the game away with an empty next goal not long after with Nick Halagian scoring from centre and it’s a 3-1 final.

Gavin Rauser and Brock Sawyer joined me in the post-game show: