Daniel Schuler struck for his second overtime winner in as games to give the Kings a 3-2 win over the Cowichan Valley Capitals on Friday night.
Special teams are a big factor in most BCHL games and this one was no different. Four powerplay goals and a shorthanded one to open the scoring emphasizes the importance of discipline and the impact it has on the momentum of the game.
Kings first goal was scored on a two on one rush when Jon Jutzi converted a nice saucer pass from Schuler.
The goal at 7:26 was Jutzi's fourth of the year and kept the Kings on top of the shorthanded goals (10) total in the league.
They slacked off a little though on the next two Caps' powerplays and the visitors 'capitalized' with a couple of goals to end the first period up 2-1.
The second period was scoreless but the Kings' finally evened the game 2-2 when Brenden Forbes grabbed a rebound off Dalrymple's hard point shot.
Kings were looking good when Chris Williams slapped the puck high and hard off the glass behind the Caps net.
Trouble is his shot hit the top of a narrow pane of glass and it shattered to cause a halt to the action.
A lengthy delay because that pane is different than the others and staff had to custom cut a new piece to slide in.
After 30 minutes the teams came back to the ice and it looked as though the Caps were affected more by the delay.
Kings had more jump and better chances to score but Dun kept them off the board and overtime was needed to decide the outcome.
Kings had the man advantage for most of the 1st overtime period and really had some great chances but again, Dun was stopping everything, even using his face on one occasion.
Finally, on the opening faceoff of the 2nd overtime, Adair scrambled to get the puck free off the faceoff and shoved the puck over to Schuler who broke in on the wing and fired the puck into a slim opening on the shortside to win the game.
Just like the Trail game a week before, the bench emptied and the Kings survived another scare, this time against a tough conference contender.
After the game bench boss Chad van Diemen talked about the ups and downs of the game.
"It was not a good start."
"It started with our pre-game skate today, it wasn't the greatest," he said, "and then we came out and took a few penalties early after getting a great shorthanded goal to start."
"We gave them momentum with those penalties but got it back when they took the four minute penalty and then another one and we got it back."
"That's a very good team over there," he complimented, "they play a good system and it's tough to score goals against them."
The absence of Steven Schmidt forced van Diemen to make some changes and one of them was to find a body willing to screen on the powerplay.
Brandan Smith got the assignment and van Diemen said, "we tried Brandan up there – he's got good hands and he was doing it in practice today."
"Dalrymple was taking one timers from the point," he laughed, "and he didn't flinch so we tried it out and we had some chances and didn't put any in on that one but in the long run the powerplay came through and got us some big goals when we needed them."
Ron Armitage Mens Wear Three Stars:
1. Daniel Schuler
2. Derek Dun
3. Jon Jutzi
