(Tyler Anderson scored his 14th goal of the season Friday night, which is best among BCHL defensemen. Photo By: Matt Jensen Photography)
It was not the start Prince George wanted as Connor Russell received a double minor for high sticking. Adding to his team lead in goals, Cam Donaldson cashed in just over a minute into the man-advantage to give Powell River the lead.
The Spruce Kings would reply on a power play of their own, as it was the league leader in goals amongst defensemen cashing in. Tyler Anderson from the point waited until he liked what he saw, and sent a puck in off the left post tying the game at one. Powell River replied with a pair of Tristan Mullin goals to cap the period though. First it was a Johan Steen point shot that was knocked away by Tavin Grant, but Mullin was there to bury the rebound. The Manitoba native scored his second with 28 seconds left batting the puck over a sprawled Grant. The Kings led in shots 20-6 after one. One less than they had managed in Prince George the entire game back in October.
Powell River continued their scoring in the second with Ben Berard coming down on a two-on-one. The Duncan boy shot, and scored for his eighth of the season. PG would reply less than two minutes later as Bryan Allbee scored his first goal in his second game as a Spruce Kings. Brett Mennear and Tyler Anderson did the leg work in the right corner, and pumped the puck back to the left point for Allbee. The defenseman walked in, and wristed a shot past Adamyk to make the score 4-2. 10 seconds later Jonny Evans was hauled down on a break, and was awarded a penalty shot. The forward danced in with some nice moves on the ensuing opportunity, and tucked the puck in on the right side. 13 seconds later it was number 13 at it again as Evans jammed in a puck to put Powell River ahead 6-2. Allowing six goals on 25 shots, the Spruce Kings pulled Grant, and put in callup Dawson Rodin who was a former AP with the Kings.
That would spark Prince George as they went on to score the next two goals to get themselves within range of the Kings at 6-4. Chong Lee finished off a nice passing play on the power play from the slot after taking a pass from Drew Lennon. Ben Poisson made a great effort with 6:19 to go as he sprawled out for a puck, and was able to sweep the puck in cutting the deficit to two goals. The last time PG was in Powell River, it was Nick Halagian scoring a hat-trick, and Tristan Mullin completed the feat Friday night wrapping the puck past Rodin for the 7-4 Kings lead.
Period three was no better for Prince George as the Kings scored three unanswered goals to complete the scoring and hit double digits. A little over a minute in Kyle Betts made it 8-4 with Mullin picking up the assist for his third point of the night. Jake Kohlhauser laid out Brett Mennear at centre ice seven minutes in, and Tyler Anderson took exception dropping the gloves. Each player landed a few heavy blows with Anderson wrestling the Kings defenseman down to end the fight. Powell River struck back by finding the back of the net as Cam Donaldson scored his second goal of the evening. 13:52 into the final frame Keegan Ward took a penalty for contact to the head, and as the players were skating up the ice the goal horn sounded, and Powell River came back into the zone to score making it 10-4. Despite the goal, Prince George still had to kill off a full five minutes on the power play. They were successful there, but didn’t have their heads very high a minute later when the final buzzer sounded.
This game kicks off the first of three in two and a half days for the Spruce Kings. They will stay in Powell River overnight, and travel back to the island where they will face the Alberni Valley Bulldogs Saturday night. The two teams met earlier this season with Prince George coming out on top with an 8-0 win. Nanaimo is the final destination on Sunday where the team will wrap up their roadtrip against a team they beat 6-1 in Prince George back in October.
