Kings 4 Dogs 1, Dogs visit Caps tonight

The Dogs have lost three in a row now after a three game winning streak to open the season after a 4-1 loss to the Kings in Powell River last night.

The Dogs were in penalty trouble from the get-go, down twice in the first four minutes of the game, but they killed them both off. The best save of the first period might have been Kings goalie Jamie Phillips robbing Josh Mitchell on a diving glove save across the crease.

After a scoreless first period the Kings opened the scoring on a controversial goal (from the Dogs point of view) early in the second. With the Kings already on the power play, defenceman Chris Williams would come below the tops of the circles after the whistle and get into a scrum behind the Dogs net, headlocking Tanner Hicks behind the Dogs net seeing both players head to the box, and the draw supposed to be heading to the neutral zone. The Dogs would argue that point with the officials but it fell on deaf ears, and allegedly profaine mouths, as the officials refused.

The draw remained in the zone, and on the ensuing puck drop it ended up immediately in the net for a 1-0 Kings lead. Against a team as good as the Kings, a team that hadn't allowed a goal in over 148 minutes at that point, every goal is huge and you can ill afford to allow a single goal, better yet one under those circumstances.

You ESPECIALLY cannot allow a goal on your powerplay. It has to be your equalizer, but that's how the Kings went up 2-0 as Steven Schmidt found a loose puck at centre and made a nice move on the breakaway.

The Dogs battled back to get on the board late in the period on a great shift by the Kalashnikovs on the ice with Dylan Nowakowski as Arty found Yan on the doorstep from a pass behind the net to make it 2-1. Max Fenkell would then come up with a huge save on a breakaway to keep it 2-1 before the Dogs drew a penalty with 11 seconds to play in the period to begin the third on the powerplay.

Instead of the powerplay coming up with a big one to even it up, it was the Kings scoring again shorthanded, just 11 seconds into the period on a point shot that hit Steven Schmidt in front and went in to make it 3-1 and take all the win out of the Dogs sails. Evan Richardson would finish the scoring converting a breakaway at the seven minute mark for the 4-1 final.

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