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Manz’s floater proves deadly as Spruce Kings edge Surrey

An old adage in hockey always seems to ring true, if you let a team below you in the standings hang around, the tougher they are to put away.

The only person that stood in the way of Surrey Eagle shocker was Dustin Manz.

The 19-year-old wristed one past a surprised Hayden Missler who let in the game-winner off his glove as the Prince George Spruce Kings escaped with a 2-1 win.

Manz admits the team had to work up quite a sweat to get past Surrey’s stingy road effort.

“We didn’t really come out as hard as we could have, we had a lot of turnovers throughout the game that took away our chances in the o-zone and allowed some of the chances against us as well.”

“We got to come out with our hardest tomorrow and we’ve got to play like we always have been especially lately we have been playing really good and that just wasn’t our best game.”

Friday’s contest was also the Drop the Gloves and Sock it to Em night where fans threw warm clothing out on the ice after Manz notched his first goal of the game late in the first period on the power-play from Ben Brar and Nick Bochen.

Jake Toor tied up the game in the third period courtesy of a deflection shot from Tyler Pang, re-directing it past Spruce Kings netminder Logan Neaton.

Friday’s victory was also the first game of newly-acquired forward and fellow American Spencer DenBeste who seem to fit in like a glove on the third line with Corey Cunningham and Chong Min Lee.

DenBeste is also from Michigan like Manz where both players cross paths with one another a few times while coming up through the minor hockey ranks.

“We grew up playing against eachother and we did like bantam and midget fest together. We were never super-close and he committed around four years ago and I committed last summer and we kind of kept in touch ever since then and kind of became not super good friends but we know where we are.”

The victory puts the Spruce Kings three points up on Chilliwack for the division lead who fell 10-5 to the Coquitlam Express on Friday.