The Coquitlam Express scored a pair of unanswered goals in the second period, then added four more in the third to shut out the visiting Powell River Kings 6-0 Saturday at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex.
The win was Coquitlam’s first in almost a month, when they beat the Cowichan Valley Capitals 5-3 on Nov. 20. The six losses since then included a 4-3 setback to the Chilliwack Chiefs on Friday.
Against Powell River, Arlo Merritt opened the scoring with a power play goal six minutes into the second period, when a floater from the blue line eluded Kings’ goalie Matthias Smith.
Jayden Sison followed that up with another power play goal just over a minute laterm firing a bullet into the net to put the home team up 2-0.
Carter Cochrane, Jaeger Murdock and Ray Hamilin with a pair, scored goals in the third period as the Express rained 20 shots at Smith. Over the three periods, Coquitlam had a 49-23 advantage in shots on net.
Express goalie Connor Mackenzie earned his second shutout of the season.
The win moved the Express a point back of the Kings for seventh place in the BC Hockey League’s Coastal division standings as the team embarks on its holiday break. Coquitlam next plays on Jan. 2, at home against the Nanaimo Clippers.
Attendance for that game will be capped at 50 per cent of Poirier’s 2,000-seat capacity after new public health restrictions to limit transmission of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 were announced Friday by British Columbia’s chief medical officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry. The new rules are in effect until Jan. 31.
Coquitlam plays seven home games in January.
Earlier Saturday, Express general manager Tali Campbell expressed his frustration with the new limitation on social media
“We are almost 2 years into this; how are we not solution based instead of restrictions based?” he said on Twitter. “Lockdowns/restrictions can’t be the answer anymore.”
The Express and the rest of the BCHL have struggled through two seasons of public health restrictions that cancelled most of the 2020 playoffs, truncated last season’s schedule to a brief flurry of exhibition games in the fall followed by a five-week regional schedule in five centralized pods where fans weren’t allowed to attend.
As the public health crisis seemed to ease, this year’s schedule was back on track, with full attendance allowed again in early October. But massive rainstorms that caused flooding and the closure of several key highways in November forced the cancellation of several games and ultimately another adjustment to the league’s schedule to eliminate the travel that comes with inter-conference games.
Campbell followed up his post with an invitation to fans with tickets to Saturday’s Vancouver Canucks game that had to be postponed because of several positive COVID tests that have sidelined players from both teams to attend the Express game for free.
“I feel for our friends at the Canucks,” he said, “however the Express game is still on tonight and I want to invite everyone.”
