VICTORIA, BC – Coming home was sweet for the Salmon Kings this evening.
If there was a bell available this one would have been called in the first twenty minutes. The Salmon Kings were outshot 16 to 9 in the opening stanza but led 5-1. Steelheads goalie Matt Climie was pulled after just six shots and three goals. His replacement, Rejean Beauchemin, fared little better in yielding two more goals in the first and three after that through two periods.
After two periods the Salmon Kings held an 8-1 lead and were clearly in charge (understatement of the season) of the game and the series.
Scott Howes scored twice for the ‘Kings while Patrick Coulombe, Aaron Brocklehurst, Sean O’Connor, Olivier Filion, Olivier Labelle, Wes Goldie and Shaun Landolt, all scored single tallies in this contest.
The intriguing thing for future opponents of Victoria is the balance in the scoresheet. Goldie picked up his first of the series tonight and only Howes had more than one marker on the evening.
Todd Ford was certainly busy in the Kings’ net while stopping 30 shots on goal and giving up two scores. But most were outside the area of concern for a goalie and his defense cleared the loose pucks and rebounds.
The series is not over and the ‘Kings need to pick up that one victory to move on and get some rest.
The Steelheads have had little of the swagger from the regular season and all-everything netminder Climie has been shelled and could be listed as shell-shocked at this point. His return from Dallas was viewed as a reason to believe the Steelies would move on in this series. That prediction seems almost farcical at this point.
Contact lou.lafrado@prohockeynews.com .
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