The Langley Rivermen rolled into Powell River this past weekend to take on the Kings in a weekend doubleheader, their first extended road trip of the season.
Friday’s game could not have started any better for the visiting team, as the Rivermen forced a turnover inside the Kings zone and Mason Kesselring found himself all alone, sniping in his second goal of the young season 44 seconds into the game.
Langley kept the pressure on in the first period, hitting a post and Vincent Lamberti in the Powell River net would turn aside the final 7 shots he faced to keep it 1-0 Rivermen going into the second period.
Calvin Beard would tie it up for the Kings 4:47 into the second period, and despite a very good Rivermen response to Powell River’s tying goal it would remain 1-1 going into the third period.
Powell River would score two goals in the span of 1:37 to give themselves a 3-1 with 7:07 gone in the third. It would stay that way for 10 minutes of action until the Rivermen pulled Bodee Weiss in favour of the extra attacker, and Ethan Merner would tip in a Sid McNeill point shot for his 4th straight game with a goal.
After some further Rivermen pressure and a couple of last ditch saves by Lamberti, the Kings would put one into the empty net on a shot from their own zone taking game one of the double header 4-2.
Saturday’s game had Langley starting well again, but it took them until the second period to get the opening goal. Adyn Merrick cleaned up the rebound of a Tyler Chan shot to put the Rivermen into the lead with his second of the young season.
6 minutes later the Kings would equalize on a wrister from the slot, and then four minutes later they would give themselves the lead on another slot shot.
43 seconds into the third period, Langley would find themselves trailing by two as Christian Maro scored in tight for the home team, making it 3-1 and a mountain to climb for Langley.
Rookie Owen DeWitt would score his first goal in the BCHL with 3:24 gone in the third, as he tipped in a shot from Sid McNeill cutting Powell River’s lead to two.
Langley would continue the push offensively, and tied the game on an Adyn Merrick redirection thanks to a shot from Ryan Schelling along the left wing with 1:19 to go in the game, and the game would go to overtime.
Merrick would once again get in on the scoring, starting the play inside Langley’s half of centre, breaking past two Kings players and wrapping the puck past Kings netminder Cooper Flemming for his hat trick goal, handing the Rivermen a 4-3 overtime win and the weekend split in Powell River.
Langley now clash with the Coquitlam Express this weekend, starting with Friday, October 11th in Coquitlam, and Saturday in Langley at the George Preston Arena.
