Photo credit: Vicki Brown
PRINCE GEORGE- Home sweet home, the Prince George Spruce Kings returned to Kopar Memorial Arena for the first time since October 21 on Friday night.
The Kings welcomed an interior conference opponent to Prince George, the West Kelowna Warriors. Unlike the first time these two teams met, back on October 13, the Spruce Kings came out of Friday night victorious.
West Kelowna scored first. Nearing the end of the first period, Warriors forward, Jackson Kyrkostas (’04), skated end-to-end beating multiple Spruce Kings defenders and starting goalie, Marcus Ouellet (’04) cleanly on the blocker side.
That would be the only blemish on the boxscore of Ouellet Friday night. The Toronto, Ontario, native turned away the other 30 shots he saw the Warriors throw his way. Over the last two games, Ouellet has made 70 saves, allowing just four goals in that time.
The Spruce Kings opened their scoring with the man advantage in the second period. In the dying moments of their third power-play of the game, Trent Ballentyne (’04) banged home his second goal of the season from the side of the net.
Then, just 23 seconds later, the Spruce Kings took the lead for the first time in the game. After Jared Langdon (’06) won a face-off cleanly, Alexis Cournoyer (’03) picked up the puck and wired it past the glove of Warriors starting goalie Justin Katz (’04). Spruce Kings lead 2-1 after two periods.
West Kelowna dominated the shot department in the final period 12-1. However, on the Spruce Kings’ only shot, they extended their lead. On a broken play, Linden Makow (’04) found open ice, making no mistake with a beautiful feed from Jared Langdon and buried the puck behind Katz.
Ouellet would do the rest for the Spruce Kings, turning away all of the Warriors shots in the third period. Spruce Kings snap their four-game losing streak, beating the Warriors 3-1.
Game Summary
Scoring
Prince George: T. Ballentyne (2), A. Cournoyer (3), L. Makow (3)
West Kelowna: J. Kyrkostas (7)
Goaltending
Marcus Ouellet: (W) 60:00 (1GA 30 saves)
Justin Katz: (L) 57:45 (3GA 20 saves)
Power-play
Prince George: 1/5
West Kelowna: 0/3
Next Game: The Prince George Spruce Kings will be back on the ice Saturday night for the second of a doubleheader with the West Kelowna Warriors. You can watch all the action on FloHockey and listen live on Mixlr.
