The Powell River Regals claimed home ice advantage for the upcoming best-of-three playoff series with an 11-5 win over the Sunshine Coast Hitmen last Friday night in Sechelt.
The dates for the series have yet to be finalized, but will see the Hitmen and Regals play game one in Gibsons then return to Powell River for game two and three if needed. The winner of the series will represent this area in the Coy Cup senior men's hockey provincial championship.
A heated rivalry has built up between the two Coast teams and that was evident once again in last Friday's game.
The first period was highly entertaining with the Regals holding a 4-3 edge after 20 minutes. Hitmen goals came from Mark Chabot with two and Colton Vaughn. Eldon Chernowsky, Aaron Portman, Chabot and Brad Wingfield with two added the assists.
The Hitmen tied the score early in the second on a Wingfield goal from Vaughn and Drew Johnson.
Then with 12 minutes to go, tempers flared between the teams after Will Malcolm from the Regals got a little too close to Hitmen goalie Taylor Dollevoet and tried to free a loose puck after the whistle.
The officials took more than 10 minutes to sort out the penalties, and while doing so, Malcolm threw off his gloves challenging any Hitmen player to a fight. The Hitmen didn't take the bait as Malcolm was escorted off the ice. The resulting penalties saw a couple of ejections from both teams and put the Hitmen down two men.
The Hitmen killed off three previous penalties in the first period and were poised to kill off the two-man advantage, but Powell River scored two goals in 20 seconds at the back end of the power play to take a 6-4 lead, then scored their seventh goal a little over a minute later.
With the Hitmen reeling a bit, Graham Sheppard scored to cut the lead to two, but Powell River pushed back, scoring two more to end the period up 9-5. Two more goals in the third sealed the win.
"Losing is learning, it's growing pains," said player/manager Keith McKenzie. "You can't blame the officials. In the end, we have to play with more discipline. Losing is losing, and it hurts because we know we can play with this team."
