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Spruce Kings Win Big Over Alberni Valley Bulldogs

(#27 Connor Russell with two goals Friday night. Photo by: EnsLens Photography)

The Prince George Spruce Kings had their most dominant performance in likely the last two years.

In an 8-0 thumping of the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, the Spruce Kings put on quite the show for their third largest attendance of the year.

After the first period, it looked like it would be a much tighter game as the Spruce Kings led by just one goal heading into the second intermission. The Bulldogs were outshot 21-6, but Carson Schamerhorn stood on his head stopping 20 shots. The lone goal came off a lost faceoff for the Spruce Kings. Ethan de Jong jumped forward, and tied the puck up in the right corner. Kyle Johnson dug the puck free, and fed Jarod Hovde who was alone in the slot. Fanning on the first shot, Hovde recovered the puck, and roofed it into the top right over opening the scoring just before the halfway mark.

The middle frame looked like it would again be a stalemate, as the Spruce Kings fired 12 shots in the first 14 minutes but couldn’t solve Hovde. Eventually they would break through, and the flood gates opened with Prince George scoring three goals on five shots.

First it was Travis Schneider with a heads up play from behind the net to find Connor Russell at the top of the circles, and after a brief hesitation, fired the puck past Schammerhorn for the 2-0 lead. 24 seconds later immediately after the BCHL timeout, Prince George stuck again with Russell’s defence partner Tyler Anderson scoring his first goal as a Prince George Spruce King. With Brett Mennear winning the faceoff back, Tyler Anderson unloaded a canon that Schamerhorn had no chance on, tripling the Spruce Kings lead. With just under two minutes remaining, the Spruce Kings top line of Mennear, Huber, and Cambell bounded up ice on a three-on-two. Cambell saucered the puck over to Mennear, and when the captain missed the puck, it looked like the drive might be over. Instead, Mennear grabbed the puck, fed Huber on the goal line, who in turn passed it out front to Campbell, and with Schamerhorn falling to his left, the forward who started the play was able to tuck in a shot on the near post.

Leading 4-0 in the third, Prince George didn’t let off the gas. Just two minutes in it was Tyler Anderson intercepting a pass in the neutral zone, and quickly springing Hunter Luhmann the other way on a two-on-one with Travis Schneider. With Schamerhorn thinking shot, Luhmann slid the puck over to Schneider who had an easy tap in for his second goal of the year.

The lone sore mark for Prince George at that point in the evening was the power play which had gone 0 for 3 to start. Alberni started getting chippy though trailing 5-0, and Prince George made them pay when they visited the penalty box. The Bulldogs wound up having to kill a full two minutes of five-on-three hockey, but the Spruce Kings would not drop that opportunity, as just over a minute in Mennear had a centring feed from Huber deflect off his skate and into the net. A minutes after the second penalty expired, Connor Russell found twine for the second time of the evening, and fourth of the season. Off a Mennear faceoff win, Russell was able to send a wrist shot past a screen, and into the top left corner for the 7-0 lead. After scoring five goals in the previous two seasons (102 games) Russell already had four goals in 12 games this year.

Not to be outdone, two minutes later it was Anderson bagging his second of the night. On their seventh power player, Parker Colley won the draw back to Connor Russell at the left side of the blueline. Skating across the ice he changed places with Anderson, and as the crowd was following Russell, he flipped the puck back to his partner, who sent a slap shot past the blocker of Schamerhorn to make the score 8-0 with just over five minutes left in the game.

Prince George was happy to milk the final five minutes, and ensure Stefan Wornig earned his first shutout of the year, and third in his BCHL career. He made 17 saves on the evening while Carson Schamerhorn was in net for all eight Spruce Kings goals, but did make 45 saves.

Special teams finished well for Prince George as they went two-for-eight on the power play, and were a perfect four for four on the penalty kill.

Prince George gets a rest day Saturday, and hosts the Powell Kings on Sunday who will be taking on the Merritt Centennials Saturday night. Alberni Valley meanwhile will continue their road trip as they take on the Langley Rivermen Saturday night who fell in overtime Friday to the Penticton Vees. With Prince George collecting the two points, Coquitlam losing, and Langley losing in overtime, it is now a three way tie between those teams for third in Mainland Division. Prince George is ahead of the pack for now as they have one fewer game played.