After a disappointing loss in Chilliwack on Wednesday the Kings would face another big challenge in a double header against the Nanaimo Clippers.
Originally the Kings were set to play in Vernon and Merritt this weekend but due to road closures the Kings would have to face island rival the Nanaimo Clippers who also had games in Merritt and Prince George this weekend postponed. The Kings met the Clippers for the first time since the beginning of the season where the Clips won all 4 games.
On Friday they would do battle in Nanaimo and the Clippers would get on the board early at the tail end of a 4 minute power play mid way through the first, but the Kings would answer 56 seconds later off a favorable bounce in the corner on a dump in, the puck came in front of the net for Anthony Lucarelli who beat Cooper Black over the shoulder for his team leading 7th goal of the season. The Clippers would eventually pull away in the 2nd period with 3 goals and then adding one more in the 3rd to defeat the Kings 5-1. Despite the loss newly signed goalie Matthias Smith look great in the Kings crease playing in his first regular season game in over a year.
The Kings returned home on Saturday for another matchup with the Clippers and Nanaimo continued right where they left off getting and early 2 goal lead. The Kings would answer back on the Power Play as Parker LaLonde scored his 6th of the season but the Clippers would add one more before the period ended to take the 3-1 lead. Naniamo would score an early goal in the 2nd to extend the lead to 3 but the Clippers got into some penalty trouble and the Kings made them pay as Casey Aman and Nic Porchetta scored 2 goals on the man advantage to get the Kings within 1 heading into the 3rd. Looking to even it up early on Hunter Andrew would feed a cross ice pass for Mark D’Agostino but it was poked away by Max Itagaki who fed Sean Donaldson on a breakaway and he made no mistake making it 5-3 for Nanaimo which would end up being the game winner. Aaron Neal would score in the dying seconds but the Clippers would win 7-4.
Kings dropped their 4th straight game and are now 7-10-1 on the season. The Kings have been riddled with injuries the last 2 weeks with 7 players going down recently. Caleb Parkhouse made his return on Friday while more good news could be on its way as 2 players could make their return on Friday against the Bulldogs on Tla’amin first nation night at Hap Parker.
