Sean Donaldson came back to haunt his old teammates.
He scored the only goal of the shootout, in the fifth round, which gave the visiting Nanaimo Clippers a 5-4 victory over the Prince George Spruce Kings Friday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
The 18-year-old Donaldson, who helped the Kings win their first BCHL championship last season, unloaded a shot that beat goalie Jett Alexander just inside the goalpost.
“I just kind of saw the goalie go down a little early and thought I could beat him upstairs,” said Donaldson, a University of Connecticut recruit who joined the Clippers in an off-season trade from the Spruce Kings.
“It feels good, I think we really deserved to win that game, killing a lot of penalties off. I’m a Clipper now, so it’s always good to get the win for your team. We have to stay out of the box, we’ve been pretty good at that this year but we got a little carried away and took a five-minute penalty. I think out PK was really good tonight and that why we won the game.”
Kyler Kovich scored twice, while Joshua Bourne and Scott Mahovlich also countered for the Clippers. Corey Cunningham collected two goals to fire up the Kings’ offence and Fin Williams and Preston Brodziak also scored in front of 859 witnesses at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
The Kings played nearly eight of the last nine minutes of regulation time on the power play before Cunningham finally connected with the tying goal, blasting in a cross-ice feed from Nick Poisson with 1:39 left in the third period. That goal came near the tail end of a five-minute power play. Clippers forward Travis Walton was handed a major and game misconduct for his blindside open-ice hit on Chong Min Lee, which left the 20-year-old winger lying prone on the ice.
Just before that hit, the Kings finished off a two-man advantage that lasted for 81 seconds but they couldn’t score. They held the zone the entire time but were unable to muster many shots on net. Poisson’s zinger off the goalpost was as close as they came. Clippers centre Mahovlich had a lot to do with that, He blocked shots, tied up traffic in the slot and won some key face-offs.
“It sucks losing in a shootout,” said Cunningham. “Our D shot the puck and when they shoot the puck good things happen. But we didn’t bear down in front of the net enough and that gave us the result of this game. We outplayed that team but we have to be better in a lot of areas.”
The Kings have gone through a lot of injuries on the blueline. Evan Orr played for only the second time in three weeks and they’re still missing regulars Nick Bochen and Cole Leal. Consequently, they looked a little disjointed at times. Mahovlich’s goal came as a result of a bad breakout pass from Orr that was intercepted in the Kings’zone.
“Our D need to move the puck quicker up ice,” said Cunningham. “We usually run a play like burn-and-turn, hit the ringette line on our own zone and sprint up. The D are taking a little bit longer and losing their edges a couple times and that’s where the turnover happened. Our tracking was not good tonight, we need to pick up the late guys more.”
The teams traded goals in the first period. Cunningham set up former Clipper Brodziak in the slot for his third goal in three games to open the scoring. Kovich took advantage of some sloppy defensive zone play and scored on a 2-on-0.
Nanaimo connected later in the period on a power play to take a 2-1 lead. Trevor LeDonne centred the puck for Kovich and his one-timer from the slot for his second of the night, Bourne added to the lead in the second period, scoring on a slapper from the right face-off circle, one second after Kings defenceman Amran Bhabra returned to the ice after a tripping penalty.
Sustained pushback from the Kings late in the period put them back on even terms. Lee grabbed the puck in the offensive zone and spotted Williams in front as he circled behind the net. The 16-year-old rookie banged the puck in behind goalie Jordan Naylor for his team-leading seventh of the season.
Less than a minute later, with the Kings on a power play, Cunningham got his stick on a rebound of a Mason Waite shot left in a crowd in front of the Nanaimo net and the teams went into the second intermission tied 3-3.
The shot count ended up 39-31 in the Kings’ favour but they were outshot 6-1 in five minutes of overtime. Kovich forced Alexander to make a pad save early in OT and Steven Agriogianis just missed on a wraparound chance.
The Kings are back on the ice at RMCA tonight at 7 p.m. to face the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
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