It was a special night at the Comox Valley Sports Centre on Friday night.
A special teams night, to be precise.
The Comox Valley Glacier Kings won the pivotal Game 5 in their best-of-seven Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League North semifinal series against the Oceanside Generals by a 6-2 margin.
Just how special was it? The Yetis went 3-for-5 on the power play, and added another at the exact moment a penalty expired, and killed off four of five power plays against, the only exception being an Oceanside goal to make it a 5-2 game with 11 minutes remaining in the third.
Comox Valley also scored a shorthanded marker.
As much as special teams were the difference, individually, the Glacier Kings had goalie Ryder Lally to thank for keeping the Generals at bay for the first half of the game.
The teams traded goals in the first period. Lare Pahtayken opening the scoring for the home side with his third of the series, 16 minutes into the game, before Oceanside captain Jacob Thomas responded 90 seconds later with his fourth.
Pahtayken鈥檚 goal was the first power-play marker for the Yetis.
Whereas the first period was relatively tame, with only one power-play opportunity aside, the second period was anything but.
Glacier Kings forward Joe Weber was assessed a double minor for high sticking, two and a half minutes in, but the Comox Valley penalty killers prevailed.
Midway through the second period, the Generals were given a golden opportunity, as Alex Bend and Pahtayken were sent off for minors 27 seconds apart, giving Oceanside a 1:33 five-on-three advantage. Once again, the penalty killing units came away unscathed. By the time those penalties expired, the Generals had a 17-5 shot advantage in the second period alone - 28-14 overall - and yet the score remained 1-1.
The Glacier Kings then got their turn with the man advantage, after Jasper Felbaum was given a five-minute major for a check from behind on defenceman Tanner Burt, who remained motionless in the corner for a couple of minutes before being helped to the bench.
Adding to Oceanside鈥檚 troubles, Grayson Erickson was handed a roughing minor two minutes later, giving the Glacier Kings a five-on-three opportunity of their own.
Aodhan Hildebrandt cashed in 18 seconds into the five-on-three, Ivan Kendrov scored his first of the series two minutes later, and Logan Furlong tallied at the exact moment the major expired, to give the Glacier Kings a 4-1 lead.
In that five-minute span, the Glacier kKings outshot the Generals 15-0 and scored three goals.
Game over? Not so fast. With a minute left in the period, Kendrov was given a five-minute major for contact to the head, after cross-checking an Oceanside General in the helmet at the end of a play.
Not only did the Glacier Kings kill off that penalty, but Joe Weber scored a shorthanded goal to give the Kings a 5-1 lead.
Oceanside defenceman Brady Van Herk ruined Comox Valley鈥檚 perfect penalty-killing night with a power-play goal eight minutes into the third, but it was too little, too late for the defending VIJHL champions.
Weber scored his fourth of the series less than a minute later and the Glacier Kings clamped down defensively from that point on, to take a 3-2 series lead.
Game 6 goes Saturday night at the Oceanside Arena in Parksville.
Should a Game 7 be necessary, it will take place Sunday, March 10, at the Comox Valley Sports Centre.
