The Kings would head to the Island this past weekend for a 3 game trip against 2 tough opponents in the Nanaimo Clippers and the Victoria Grizzlies.
The trip would start Friday night in Nanaimo to take on a Clippers team the was 7-0 against the Kings this season. The Clips would get off to a hot start just over a minute in as Max Itagaki would open the scoring for the Clippers to get them off to an early lead. The Kings didn’t let the early goal against rattle them as 3 minutes later Matthew Yakubowski would send a pass up to Max Potvin who then passed it off to Ethan Riesterer in the high slot and he would snipe one over Jed Ballioti for his 3rd goal in 3 games to tie it up. After the goal Clippers forward Sean Donaldson would take a 5 minute major for spearing sending the Kings to a long Power Play. The Kings would use the entire 5 minutes to get the lead as Kart McNarland fed Hunter Andrew a cross ice pass and Andrew one timed it in with 7 seconds left on the 5 minute major. The goal would be Hunter’s 10th of the season and would give the Kings the lead after the 1st period.
In the second period just one goal would be scored and it was by Clippers defenceman Alek Sukunda beat Zak Brice over the shoulder to tie the game at 2 heading into the 3rd.
The Clippers would regain the lead in the final frame on the power play, but he Kings were a resilient bunch on Friday as Anthony Lucarelli went bardown on Baliotti to even the score once more. Ethan Mistry would eventually put the Clippers back in front late on in the 3rd but once again the Kings would answer as Kaleb Nelson would poke in the loose puck off a Casey Aman point shot to help send the game into OT.
The Kings would start the extra frame on the Penalty Kill as they took a penalty at the end of regulation. The Clippers power play has been a force against the Kings all season and it did damage once more as Andrew Noel would score the winner 56 seconds into OT.
After a good performance in Nanaimo the Kings would look to take the good play to the Q Centre in Victoria for 2 games against the Grizzlies. It would be a very good first period on Saturday night as the Kings outshot the Grizzlies 9-8 but trailed 1-0 on a Kalen Szeto goal. However, the Grizzlies would take over in the 2nd period scoring 4 goals to take a 5-0 lead and they would add 3 more in the 3rd period. Mark D’Agostino would score late in regulation on the power play but the Kings would fall 8-1 Saturday night. The story of the game would be the Kings power play going 1 for 10 on the night including having two 5 on 3 opportunities which they couldn’t score on.
The Kings would do battle with the Grizzlies once more on Sunday afternoon looking for redemption from the night before but the Grizzlies would continue right where they left off scoring twice within the first 3 minutes of the game and would never look back winning Sunday 7-0. Cole Schwebius would make 31 saves in the shutout and stopped 57 on 58 shots he faced in both games being a thorn on the side of the Kings.
With the 3 losses the Kings have dropped their last 8 games going 0-5-3 in that stretch. The Kings would go 1-6-3 during the month of January and now have a record of 10-20-5 and still remain 7th in the Coastal Conference. The Kings have another big week ahead with another 3 games including a home and home vs the Cowichan Capitals who are right behind the Kings in the standings. The week will kick off Wednesday at the Hap at 7pm vs Cowichan before the Kings will visit them on Friday and then take on the Bulldogs in Port Alberni on Saturday.
