It was far from pretty, and at points more closely resembled shinny hockey, but the Kings rallied from a 2-0 first period deficit to score the game winner with under five minutes remaining to remain unbeaten on the weekend with a 6-5 win over the Merritt Centennials on Saturday night.
A disastrous start from the Kings who found themselves down 2-0 less than 6 minutes in, courtesy a pair of powerplay goals. Kings head coach Tyler Kuntz then called his timeout to relay a message that seemed to have a positive effect. Two minutes after the timeout, the Kings went to a powerplay, their first of the game and cashed in as Ben Thomas found the back of the net in back to back games and the Kings were on the board in a 2-1 game.
Merritt would restore a two goal lead late in the period through Nick Wicks and the home team held a 3-1 lead through 20 minutes. Mitch Adamyk found his night over in the first intermission, pulled to spark the team after giving up 3 on 15 shots faced with some defensive breakdowns in front of him. Matteo Paler-Chow came in relief.
For everything the start of the first was for the Kings, the opposite was true in the second as the Kings started the period on a powerplay carried over from the end of the first period. The Kings needed just 18 seconds for Ryan Brushett to find the back of the net for his league-leading 26th of the season and a 3-2 game. The score stayed that way until late in the period when the Centennials went to another powerplay, converting for their third man advantage goal and a 4-2 advantage.
Then the turning point. Ethan Kimball finds a quick shot on net and scores with just 8 seconds remaining in the period to close the gap to just a single goal, Kimball scoring his 3rd of the season.
Powell River used that momentum and built on it into the third period. Just past the two minute mark, Jayden Lee got a feed up from Levi Glasman and found a lane and a shot that went off something in front, the post then in for his 4th of the season and a 4-4 game, and a goal that put Merritt on the back foot. Brushett compounded the advantage for the Kings six minutes later, giving the Kings their first lead of the game on Brushett’s 27th of the year.
The lead would be shortlived, less than a minute until Merritt tied the game at 5. Then with four and a half remaining, Ethan Schmunk got a puck in the slot, and snuck a shot away while falling to the ice, his 6th of the season and second of the weekend stands up as the game winner and the Kings skate to a 6-5 victory. Paler Chow stops 33 in the win.
The Kings wrap the pre-Christmas schedule on Sunday afternoon in Coquitlam against the Express in a 3:00pm start.
