Coming off a 2-1 win on Saturday vs the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, the Kings would look to make it 2 in a row on Teddy Bear Toss night against the Cowichan Valley Capitals.
The Kings got off to a great start controlling the play for a majority of the period and we’re rewarded 13:46 in as the Capitals gave the puck right to Nolan Krogfoss in their own zone and he found Parker LaLonde alone in the front of the net who made a great move to roof over a sprawling Caps goalie McCoy Bidewell to score the teddy bear toss goal and give the Kings the lead.
Things would start to even out in the 2 period, with more back and forth action, but the Kings would get into some penalty trouble towards the end of the period. Despite being down a man the Kings would be able to extend the lead as Dylan Finlay threw off the boards from the top of his zone and it came to LaLonde who went in to a breakaway and fired the wrister under the glove of Bidewell to score his 2nd of the night and the 5th shorthanded goal for the Kings this season. The Kings would continue to increase the lead as LaLonde make a breakout pass to Casey Aman on the left wing who brought the puck into the offensive zone and centered it for Caleb Parkhouse who was alone in the slot and made no mistake and put it in for his 4th of the season and make it a 3-0 lead after 2 periods.
In the 3rd the Capitals would come out firing, the momentum would shift in the Caps favor as the Kings got into some more penalty trouble, but managed to kill them off, but the Caps were starting to feel it. 4 minutes in Shane Lavelle would score from an sharp angle, just finding daylight by the should of Smith to get the Caps on the scoreboard. Cowichan would keep on pressing down 2 goals and with the extra attacker with 2:05 remaining, former King Ian Kern would get the Capitals within one after he shot a loose puck that found its way to the back of the net. Now it was crunch time as the Caps were now in striking distance in the final minutes. The Kings would be resilient down a man 6 on 5 blocking shots and in the final seconds the puck was cleared to the side boards and it looked like the Kings would win but Ian Kern would throw the puck on net once more and it went in just before the final buzzer to send the game to OT.
A shocked Kings team would look to rebound and pick up the extra point in OT, but a minute in Caps Forward Massimo Lombardi would strip Hunter Andrew of the Puck in the Caps zone and take the puck all the way down the ice on a partial break and put a backhander on net that just got by Matthias Smith and gave the Caps the 4-3 OT win.
Parker LaLonde would finish with 3 points and with his 2 goals, he now has the team lead in goals scored with 8. Another positive from the night was the penalty kill as it would go 5/5. It was just the 3rd time this season they haven’t allowed a power play goal.
The Kings record is now at 8-11-2 and they will look to finish the 2021 home schedule off with a win tonight vs Nanaimo which starts at 7:15.
