(Photo By: Les Gagnon Photography)
Heading into the weekend against the Surrey Eagles, some may have argued a double header with the two last placed teams in the BCHL would have been boring. They would be wrong.
Prince George came out guns a blazing Friday night, and emerged with a 9-3 win, their biggest of the year. Saturday night was back and forth all night, with Surrey flying south celebrating a 4-3 nailbiter.
Coming off a season long six game losing streak, the Spruce Kings wanted to make a good first impression in Surrey’s first visit north. They did just that, as three players scored twice, Braiden Epp and Cavin Tilsley added singles, and Ryan Fritz potted his first of the season.
The key was a fast start, as Kyle Johnson and Ryan Fritz each scored within two and a half minutes of the first puck drop. Surrey would respond though, as Brett Stewart fired a slapshot past McCloskey to get his team back within one. Both teams would trade goals before the final buzzer sounded, and went to the locker rooms with PG leading 3-2.
After stopping 63 of 65 shots in the last meeting with Prince George, Justin Laforest was pulled for the start of the second period after allowing three goals on ten shots.
The middle frame is where Prince George shone brightest, scoring four goals, with three of them being at four on four. Kyle Johnson had his second of the game, as he stole the puck in the corner, and patiently brought it out front outwaiting Daniel Davidson to backhand it over the sprawled netminder. Not to be outdone, Connor Logan scored his second of the game just over two minutes later on a nice passing play from Cavin Tilsley, and Matthew Stief. With a number of injuries already plaguing the forwards, Stief spent the weekend at centre on the second line.
Tilsley and Jarod Hovde each scored to close things out and take a 7-2 lead to the second. Colton Sandberg picked up an assist on Tilsley’s goal. In his first two games back from injury, Sandberg had assists in both games which were also his first since he joined the Spruce Kings from the Powell River Kings. Things got chippy at the tail end of the period, as Braiden Epp went to the box, and chirped Ludvig Adamsen enough to earn a cross check to the face. Epp dropped, and remained down, but was able to negate his own four minute penalty as Ludvig had a five minute penalty served by his teammate, following his game misconduct.
Greg Mackie scored early in the third to make it 7-3, but Prince George would respond again, with Jarod Hovde finding the net for his second, and Braiden Epp scored on a rebound to cap the scoring off at 9-3.
GAME NOTES: The win was the Spruce King’s first in the newly named Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. Despite scoring nine goals, Prince George went 0 for 7 on the power play. Johnson, Tilsley, Hovde, and Stief all had three point nights. With three assists, Matt Stief was named first star of the night, Nic Ponak was second with one helper, and Johnson with a pair of goals and one assist was the third.
The game on Saturday was much tighter, as Surrey was able to recover from bus legs that may have been ailing them the first night.
Again, Surrey got scoring support from their back end, as Nick Azar stepped into a slapshot for the first goal of the game. Surrey would hem Prince George in their own end for a lengthy period, but then going against the play, Parker Colley blocked a shot, and went the other way on a breakaway to score his third of the season. The goal was his second of the year against Surrey, after scoring his first BCHL marker against them back in November.
Instead of a tie game heading to the first intermission though, the Achilles heel of the Spruce Kings again bit them as Greg Mackie scored a late goal to give Surrey the lead heading the second.
It was there that Spruce Kings captain Stephen Penner extended his point streak to a season high three games, as he took a shot from the blue line to beat Laforest. Near the end of the period, Prince George was able to take their first lead of the game as Connor Logan took a pass from Hovde on a 5-on-3 to make it 3-2. Once again allowing late goals hurt PG, as Mackie ripped home his second of the game with less than two minutes left. It was Mackie’s third of the weekend in the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena to tie the game at three heading to the third.
With his first goal in the BCHL after brief stints the past two years with the Silverbacks, Logan Mostat restored Surrey’s lead in the third, batting home a puck from the left side of the net over top of Joesph McLeod who was sprawled after making the previous save. Prince George earned a late power play as Tyler Cooper went the box for interference, but the team was unable to score. The last chance was a slap shot from Burnett that was blocked from the penalty killer rushing out to preserve the win.
GAME NOTES: The win was the first for Laforest since mid-October when the Eagles defeated Merritt. Parker Colley led the Spruce Kings in points with a goal and an assist, and was named the FortisBC Energy Player of the Game. Jarod Hovde had a solid game on the penalty kill helping kill off both Eagles man advantages, and added an assist for the third star of the game nod.
