Hap Parker Arena was eerily quiet Saturday evening after the Kings dropped a 6-1 decision on the heels of a 4-3 overtime loss on Friday.
Many diehard fans felt the impact of the two losses was amplified by the expectations of the league’s most successful franchise over the last four years.
It’s what is inside the uniform, however, that matters and only hard work, belief and execution will get the job done for the Kings this year.
Friday’s game was an odd one in the sense that the Kings started out shaky but everything they threw at the Alberni net went in.
Jarryd Leung got the ball rolling when he backhanded in the game’s first goal high over netminder Jay Deo at 10:11.
Matt Dupont also used a backhand to score his goal but this time elected to go low at 10:38. Then affiliate Corey Renwick used a burst of speed and accurate wrist shot at 14:53 to lift the Kings to a 3-0 lead after the first period.
Deo was replaced by Brad Rebagliati after the third goal and as often happens, the change was a positive one for the Bulldogs.
They started a comeback midway through the second period with their first goal and closed the gap to 3-2 with another one with just nine seconds to go.
Alberni came out fired up in the third and tied the game 3-3 at 1:29 then went on to win the game in the second overtime period when the puck trickled over the Kings’ goal line at 0:30.
With fans debating whether the Kings had stolen or lost a point on Friday there was no doubt as to the outcome on Saturday.
Alberni’s Deo was back in the net to start the game and he showed early that he was in it to win it with a couple of great saves.
He flashed the leather to save a sure goal off the stick of Renwick and a post saved the day when JP Villeneuve beat him from the slot.
At the other end affiliate goaltender Jeff Smith, from major midget Northeast Chiefs, was a victim of a bad bounce that gave the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead at 14:08.
Kings’ Villeneuve put his team right back in it a minute later with a snap shot off the crossbar that went in this time but the Bulldogs restored the lead 2-1 with a goal in the last minute of the period.
Smith was pulled in favour of Braeden Ostepchuk to start the second period but the Bulldogs put the bite on the Kings for the remainder of the game and scored two goals in each of the remaining periods to skate to a relatively easy 6-1 win.
This was not quite the way the Kings or their fans had imagined their weekend.
“It’s definitely unacceptable to get one out of four points,” said forward Luke Nogard. “We came in pretty fired up but didn’t show it, especially after coming off a road win against them last week. We work real hard in practice, score lots of goals, skate really well and have great cardio and Kent’s [Lewis] a great coach so it’s just up to us to really show it on the ice.”
Consistency is elusive for some of the Kings this year and Nogard is currently in an eight-game goal-scoring slump himself.
“I’ve just got to work real hard on and off the ice,” he insisted, “in the gym and on the ice just shoot, shoot, shoot hundreds of pucks and be a student of the game out here. When I’m out on the ice, try and get better every single day.”
Nogard will have another chance to be better this week along with returning World Junior A Challenge silver medalists Evan Richardson, Luke Ripley, Jonah Imoo and injured players Matt Scarth, Stephen Hiff and Brian Rideout.
At 7:30 pm on Friday, November 16, Kings will host Vernon Vipers. They then play at 1:30 pm on Sunday against Langley Rivermen again at the Hap.
Kings’ Scroll:
Powell River native Rylan Ball got into both games as an affiliate call-up of the Bulldogs and looked comfortable in his position on the blue line.
