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 saw Rivermen forced a turnover inside the Kings zone with Mason Kesselring sniping in his second goal of the young season 44 seconds into the game.
It was1-0 Rivermen going into the second period.
Powell River scored three times to lead 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.
In Saturday’s game, 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.
Forty-three seconds into the third period, Langley would find themselves trailing by two, then 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.
Merrick, the forward from Michigan has been on fire in the first six games of the Rivermen season, including the three goals against the Powell River Kings on Saturday. With five points in his last three games, and equalling his career high for goals with four, Merrick will look to be a key figure in the lineup this weekend for the Rivermen.
Langley will play Coquitlam Express, starting with Friday, Oct. 11 in Coquitlam, and Saturday in Langley at the George Preston Arena.
Saturday at the Lodge, it's the Rivermen annual Thanksgiving game, getting underway at 7:15 p.m. with prizes to be given away by game night sponsor JD Farms.