Powell River Regals avenged a pre-Christmas 4-1 loss to Sechelt Hitmen by scoring five times in the third period to win 8-5 on Saturday night.
The Hitmen were originally scheduled to play Mid Island Blazers but a late change was necessary so that both the Hitmen and Regals could get in the six games necessary to qualify for the Coy Cup to be held in Prince Rupert in March.
A good sized crowd of close to 400 attended the game at Gibsons and Area Community Centre and they watched what other fans have seen early in the Hitmen games.
Sechelt roared out of the gate and had the Regals on their heels when they scored the first three goals of the game.
Granted, a couple of the goals were considered soft ones, but the 3-0 deficit at the end of the first period was a hole the Regals did not want to be in.
“We actually weren’t that bad,” said assistant captain Andy Welsh. “They got a couple of lucky bounces and a couple of goals that maybe Rene [Holmgren] would want back. After the first period though he shut the door and we came out much stronger in the second.”
They certainly did and Tyson Boucher got them started at 6:57 with the Regals’ first goal of the evening.
Sechelt restored the three-goal lead a minute later but then the Regals closed the gap to 4-3 by the end of the second period on goals from Welsh and Will Malcolm.
The final 20 minutes was a successful combination of Malcolm’s peskiness, Regals’ powerplay and Hitmen’s lack of discipline.
The formula resulted in five goals for the Regals as they took advantage of a five-minute major to Sechelt’s Brad Wingfield and a string of minor penalties handed out to his teammates.
Malcolm delivered the ultimate blow to the Hitmen when he scored twice in the period to complete his hat trick while Eric Albertson, Tyler Labree and Blake Rice, his first as a Regal, added the others.
Special teams were the key as the Regals went four for eight on the powerplay while they killed all but one of the Hitmen opportunities.
“The difference was the powerplay,” said Welsh. “We were scoring on our powerplay and we shut them down with our penalty kill.”
Welsh, who normally plays forward, was back on the blueline as the fourth defenceman on the team. He and Boucher each contributed a goal and four assists but Welsh said, “we just kept it simple. Got pucks out, got pucks in, the forwards kind of trapped up and we just played a smart game.”
The smart game included another stellar performance by Malcolm who brought the same pesky style of play to Gibsons as he did to Courtenay prior to Christmas. He has a way of getting under the skin of opponents and then when they retaliate he makes them pay by scoring on them.
“He was up to his normal antics,” smiled Welsh. “At the end of the game they were taking penalties on him again which basically killed them. They took penalties and we cashed in.”
Regals jump out to a four-point lead in the West Coast Senior Men’s Hockey League standings with 10 while the Hitmen and Blazers are tied with six points.
Regals’ next action is against the Hitmen at 7:30 pm, Saturday, January 22 at Hap Parker Arena.
