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Spruce Kings Earn One Point in 2nd Last Weekend

(Photo by: Tyler Vanderploeg)

With early and late goals against, the Spruce Kings again shot themselves in the foot Thursday night against the Langley Rivermen.

Outshooting the Rivermen 11-5, it looked as if Prince George would head to the first intermission tied 0-0. Matthew Graham had other ideas though, as he was able to tuck the puck in for the first goal of the game. Trevor Ayre took the puck around Liam McCloskey, and just lost the puck to the sprawled netminder, but it bounced right out front to Graham who was able to score his 23rd goal of the season. The goal came with 49 seconds remaining in the first.

In the second, Langley would strike again, as Domninic Franco led a two-on-one with Justin Fregona. Franco faked the shot, and passed the puck across to Szieto for his 3rd goal of the season against Prince George. The Spruce Kings would answer with just over a minute remaining in the period, as Tanner Campbell walked out and around the defender to score his first goal since his six goals in three games after being acquired back in January.

Heading to the third period, Prince George was trailing by just one, but that wouldn’t last long. Less than three minutes in, Sinclair and Kaufman each scored to take a 4-1 lead. With just over five minutes left, Torrin White sealed the deal, and Graham picked up an assist for this second assist, and third point of the night.


 

The next night against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, the Spruce Kings started and ended much better.

Just past the halfway mark of the 1st period, Alex Stoley took a point shot, and Brody Claeys fumbled the puck allowing Tanner Campbell to swoop in and knock in his second goal in as many nights.

In the second, which is generally the Spruce Kings strongest period, they conceded two goals to the Bulldogs. It took just four minutes for Nathan Dingmann and Tristan Bukovec to score to put Alberni Valley up by one goal.

Heading in, the Bulldogs needed points, as they sat tied in games with the Victoria Grizzlies, but were two points behind in the standings, with Victoria holding the tie breaker on number of wins.

The Bulldogs would take that one goal lead into the third period, with Prince George looking for their first win of the season when trailing after two periods.

Again, it was Tanner Campbell coming to the rescue as he scored his second of the game to tie things up at two. Jarod Hovde had the puck behind the Bulldogs net, and was able to wrap a pass out to Campbell sitting in the slot. With Claeys sliding to his left, Campbell was just able to squeak the shot through.

In 28 games with West Kelowna this season, Tanner Campbell had four goals. After 10 games with the Spruce Kings, he has nine.

Neither team would score in regulation, leaving the two teams to matchup in overtime for the second time this season. Last time, it took Alberni just 12 seconds to pot the winner, but this time around would be different.

After two periods of extra time, no goal was scored, so the game ended in a 2-2 tie. It was Prince George’s second of the season, and the fourth time Alberni would see a game without a winner.

With spectacular performances in regulation and overtime, Joseph McLeod and Claeys both had 31 saves in the game to earn the 3rd and 2nd stars. With his two goals, Tanner Campbell was selected at the first star of the game with Jarod Hovde contributing an assist to earn the Fortis Energy Player of the Game award.