Powell River, BC – Derek Krall made 29-saves, and the Powell River Kings (10-13) defeated the West Kelowna Warriors (4-14-5) 2-1 in front of 747 fans on Friday night at the Hap Parker Arena.
The Kings improve to 8-0 when scoring first, as Nic Porchetta opened the scoring late in the first period. Jacob Slipec took the puck away, lost his stick, and kicked it over to Porchetta who beat Johnny Derrick for his fourth goal this season, and first in 17-games.
Hunter McCoy would add his sixth of the season, and first in seven games – making it 2-0 Kings early in the second. Dawson McKay fed the puck to McCoy from behind the net, and he beat Derrick five-hole. That was the beginning of a very impressive second period for the Kings, as they outshot the Warriors 11-6.
“We played a heavy brand of hockey, and we were really hard to play against in the second period, which kind of took over the game,” said Kings forward Hunter McCoy. “We stuck to it for 60-minutes, and we got a couple huge saves from Derek Krall.”
Jacob Brockman pulled off one of the oldest tricks in hockey to cut the Warriors deficit to one, late in the third. He tapped his stick on the ice acting as Davis Pennington’s teammate, and he passed it right to the Brockman’s stick, and he beat Krall for his first this season.
“Pennington has done so well for us. That was a tough play, and it can happen to any of us,” said McCoy. “You don’t get down on one guy, but you just respond and finish out the game, and I think we did that.”
Krall earned the first star, allowing one goal on 30-shots, as the Kings outshot the Warriors 34-30. He improves to 8-3 this season, and 3-2 in a Kings uniform.
McCoy said that the group is starting to trust each other, which was behind the Kings third one goal victory this season.
“It was good to see everyone contribute tonight. We got some huge saves from Krall, and the momentum that you get from your goalie standing on his head is great.”
McCoy later added that the Kings haven’t got many bounces in their favor lately, but did tonight. “In a lot of our games, the bounces just didn’t go are way, but tonight we stuck to it, and the hockey gods rewarded us. We were very physical, and we earned it,” said McCoy.
The Kings improve to 6-4 at home, and 10-13 this season, which is good for fourth in the Island Division standings with 20-points this season.
The Powell River Kings are back in action this Sunday at 1:30 p.m., against the 18-4 Coquitlam Express inside the Hap Parker Arena. After Sunday, the Kings will have four days off before hosting the Trail Smoke Eaters on Friday, November 15th at 7:00 p.m.
