CORNER BROOK — Daniel McCarthy recorded the shutout as the Colemans Western Kings downed the Central Ice Pak 3-0 Sunday morning at the Pepsi Centre.
The victory gave the top seed in the provincial major midget hockey league a split on home ice after the Ice Pak pulled out a 5-4 victory Saturday night in the opening game of a best-of-seven semifinal affair.
The other semifinal series featuring the St. John’s Privateers and St. John’s Maple Leafs is also knotted at one game apiece after the two crosstown rivals battled it out in two games at the Goulds Arena.
Jordan Richards opened the scoring with an unassisted marker firing a wrist shot high over the glove of Ice Pak puckstopper Andrew Manuel with just under six minutes left in the second stanza.
The Kings opened the flood gates in the third period with three unanswered goals as McCarthy closed the door on a number of chances while the defence corps played it safe by moving the puck forward and not trying to do anything fancy with a comfortable cushion.
Josh Taylor beat Manuel with a snapshot under the bar on the short side moments after coming out of the penalty box at 2:40 of the third, while David Alexander dented the twine on a setup from Ben Murphy and Miguel Jones late in the period and Taylor scored a power-play marker with only 13 seconds on the clock to seal the deal for the Kings.
On Saturday night, Jordan Maher and Cody Drover scored two goals apiece to lead the Ice Pak to a 5-4 victory over the Kings in the series opener at the Pepsi Centre.
Shayne Dominie scored the other goal for the Ice Pak.
Shannon Moores, Ian Skinner, Josh Taylor and Jordan Richards scored for the Kings.
The Kings will now head to central for three games this weekend at the Lewisporte Arena.
The following is a look at how things unfolded in the first two games of a best-of-seven semifinal affair between the St. John’s Privateers and St. John’s Maple Leafs at the Goulds Arena over the weekend:
Maple Leafs 2, Privateers 1
Riley Baggs scored the winning goal on a power play with just 97 seconds left in regulation time to give the Maple Leafs a split Sunday morning at the Goulds Arena.
Tyler Tobin also scored a power-play marker for the third-place Maple Leafs.
Blake Dalton scored for the Privateers.
Privateers 3, Maple Leafs 2
Chris Mallard and Tyler Boland scored to give the Maple Leafs a 2-0 lead in the series opener Saturday night. Brett Vokey second for the Privateers four minutes after Boland’s second-period goal to erase the deficit to a single goal.
Peter Kavanagh scored for the Privateers with 2:53 remaining and Lee Dower scored the winner 45 seconds later for the comeback victory.
