image:Chloe Garve
Two goals in under a minute blew open a tied game in the second, as the Bulldogs beat the Kings 6-2 Friday night in Powell Rive
The Bulldogs came close to opening the scoring in the first minute on a wrist shot by Kye Benoche that spit out of the glove of David Skacel and sat free behind him, but a defensive play prevented it from crossing the line. It stayed scoreless through the midway point of the firs, but soon afterwards the Kings opened the scoring on the power play on a cross-ice one time for Brendan Giles, past the blocker side of Owen Lunneborg with with six minutes to play in the period. The Bulldogs answered in the final minute to tie it during four-aside hockey, as Matt MacDonald put a pass from the Bulldog zone on the tape of Kai Matthew at the King blueline, where he put a perfect feed onto the tape of a trailing Roy Chung, who one-timed his first career goal through the seven hole of Skacel to make it 1-1 after one.
The Bulldogs took their first lead of the game on Leim Smith’s first career goal, five minutes into the second, as he poked home and end-board bounce off a Roy Chung wrist shot from the line. It was 3-1 just 55 seconds later, as Kai Matthew scored from a similar spot on a loose puck behind the goal line off a Matt MacDonald point shot. The Bulldogs built their lead to 4-1 at the middle of the period, with Leim Smith banging home his second of the night, year and career from the crease with Brendan Espenell and Jacob Terpstra assisting. The Bulldogs added one more later in the period, as Grady Magner found a Samuel Leonard pass and put a wrist shot top corner from the far circle to make it 5-1 after 40 minutes.
The score stayed that way until the late stages of the third, when the Bulldogs made it 6-1 as Kai Matthew left the penalty box and found a stretch pass from Leith Hunter to skate in alone where he beat Erik Powers stick side with 4:39 to play. The Kings would complete the scoring with Ryan Hadley scoring on the rush with under two minutes to play to make it a 6-2 final.
Shots were 45-20 Bulldogs, with Owen Lunneborg earning his first career win in net while David Skacel took the loss. The Bulldogs went 0 for 6 on the power play while the Kings went 1 for 2.
The teams meet again Saturday night in Powell River, a 7:00pm start.
