It was a week of winners for Powell River Kings as they won three games—4-1 against Penticton Vees, 7-6 over Cowichan Valley Capitals, a crushing defeat of Victoria Grizzlies 7-1—and drew the names for their giant raffle during the game on Sunday.
Jackie Osmond is the winner of the 2011 Chevrolet Equinox from Massullo Motors, Rebe Philips is the proud owner of the Country Woodworkers dining-room set, Pete Kleimeer is $2,500 richer and Mike Ferguson will keep his home warm with a load of wood donated by Island Timberlands.
“The raffle was very successful,” said Kings’ governor Joe Mastrodonato. “We were always shooting for the 4,000 sales mark and we really pushed to the limit this week to make our goal.”
Success was the name of the game last week as the Kings looked to avenge a road loss against the Vees.
They did it with a very strong effort throughout 60 minutes and turned the 4-1 loss in Penticton into a 4-1 win on Tuesday at Hap Parker Arena.
Vees scored a powerplay goal for a 1-0 lead after one period but it was all Kings after that.
Kings got an even-strength goal from Cohen Adair, a powerplay goal from Chad Niddery, a shorthanded highlight from Matt Garbowsky and capped it off with a late breakaway goal from Andrew Pettitt.
“It was a group that was pretty wired,” said coach Kent Lewis of the overly exuberant Kings who took some early penalties. “Obviously we were pretty disgusting in their building,” he said, “but that was more like our hockey club tonight and we have to play with that energy and grit all the time.”
Unfortunately, the glow from their performance wore off for the game against last place Capitals on Friday.
It has to be said that the wildly entertaining double-overtime victory may have pleased a crowd of over 1,000 fans but from a coach’s standpoint it was painful to see the Kings play down to the Caps’ level.
The best defensive club in the league got into a shooting match with the Capitals and only by the skin of their teeth won the game in double overtime.
Down 6-4 to the Capitals with two minutes to go, Kings rallied to score twice to tie the game 6-6 and then won it on a great goal by captain Garbowsky.
“We have a set play, Garbo and me,” said Niddery after the game. “Two on two, I drop it to him or he drops it to me; it’s a perfect screen for the goalie, and he gets a nice shot bar down,” leaving nothing more but celebration.
Indeed, the fans were treated to a real barn burner and 778 of them returned to the arena on Sunday for the raffle draw and big game against Victoria.
The new and improved Grizzlies, who were winless in five tries against the Kings this year, grabbed the lead early in the game.
That was the only highlight for the Grizzlies while the Kings settled into a disciplined defensive effort that turned Grizzly frustration into goals for Powell River.
Kings went four for five on the powerplay and for the second and third periods went on to break the bruins from Victoria.
“We needed to do what we did today,” said Lewis, “and that was a good character win for us. We limited their chances in the second and third period big time and it was nice to get a few different guys on the sheet too.”
Six different scorers chipped in: Teagan Waugh, Adair, Braden Pears, Justin Bardarson, Klay Kachur and Garbowsky with two.
This week Kings play on Thursday, February 3 in Surrey, Friday, February 4 in Coquitlam and Saturday, February 5 in Langley.
Kings Scroll:
Kings move up from fifth place to third in the Canadian Junior Hockey League rankings this week.
DIVISION: Coastal Conference
TEAM GP W L T OTL PTS
Powell River 51 38 8 3 2 81
Surrey 51 32 16 1 2 67
Langley 55 27 20 1 7 62
Victoria 52 28 21 0 3 59
Nanaimo 52 24 22 1 5 54
Alberni Valley 52 22 23 4 3 51
Coquitlam 50 18 22 1 9 46
Cowichan Valley 53 19 26 1 7 46
DIVISION: Interior Conference
TEAM GP W L T OTL PTS
Vernon 52 30 10 4 8 72
Penticton 52 33 15 2 2 70
Salmon Arm 51 32 17 2 0 66
Trail 53 30 19 2 2 64
Westside 51 26 19 2 4 58
Merritt 51 19 25 1 6 45
Quesnel 52 11 33 3 5 30
Prince George 52 12 36 0 4 28
