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Captain Kyle comes to the rescue as Spruce Kings clip Eagles

With their backs up against the wall, Kyle Johnson picked up the Prince George Spruce Kings on Thursday and lifted them to a 4-1 victory over the Surrey Eagles in game five.

The 19-year-old recorded a three-point game in front of 1,348 fans at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.

Johnson drew first blood against Eagles goaltender Mario Cavaliere making it 1-0 after the first period in what was a dominating home-ice effort.

“I think we knew the season wasn’t ending tonight at home, we were confident in our game and our play and it really showed on the ice. We put a good effort forward.”

Prince George got some much-needed insurance in the middle period from Dustin Manz and Blake Hayward making it 3-0 while outshooting the Eagles 28-9.

The Spruce Kings continue to punish the top players of Surrey physically, a move that seems to be paying off according to Johnson.

“It’s something we are aware of and we have to take advantage of that because we want to have all the legs in game six and then hopefully game seven afterwards.”

The Spruce Kings will try and extend their season as they hope to win on the Olympic-sized ice in Surrey for the first time this year.

“I think the last 40 minutes of game four was an indicator where we started to figure out the olympic ice and that was probably the best thing we could take from our trip down there despite two losses as we knew we got better on that ice and our chances moving forward are going to be much better,” added Johnson.

Patrick Cozzi added another single for the Spruce Kings while Desi Burgart potted his 10th of the postseason for Surrey.

The Eagles were outshot 37-19 overall.

Puck drop for game six is at 7 PM on Saturday.

If a game seven is needed, it would be played the following day at 7 PM from the RMCA.

Ron Gallo will have the play-by-play from the Lower Mainland on 93.1 CFIS FM.