The Spruce Kings are officially on a roll as they downed the Warriors 5-2 tonight at the Castle. It was the second win in as many nights over Westside, and a game that featured a lot of similarities to their Thursday match up. There were big hits, lead changes and even a couple of tilts featuring the Spruce Kings top players. But in the end, it was Prince George who would continue to climb up the standings, pushing Westside further down into the basement of the Interior Conference.
It did start out well for the Warriors though, as like last night, they jumped out to an early 1-0 lead and were out playing the Kings. Prince George was firing a ton of shots, but many of them were easy saves for Dwayne Rodrigue as the Westside did a good job of boxing out the Kings, allowing their goaltender to see most shots. The First period also featured our two fights for the night, as Michael Colantone dropped the mits with Izaak Berglund. A Colantone slash started the tussle, but neither man landed anything significant, leading to the bout being declared a draw. Minutes later Jujhar Khaira decided he wanted to test his punching power with Max French. This fight was more of a glorified wrestling match as both men grabbed on, attempted to throw, before crashing to the ice. The two fights from Colantone and Khaira were unrealistic, but they seemed to fire up the bench moving forward.
The Spruce Kings used that momentum to their advantage early, as 2 minutes into the second frame Paul De Jersey stick handled his way through the Warriors before dekeing out Rodgrigue to tie the game up. 10 minutes later Ben Matthews helped Prince George take the lead as hr walked in and fired a wrister home on the power play. Paul De Jersey would round out the scoring in the second after tipping a nice feed from Patrick Chore. It was De Jersey's second of the game, and 30th of the season.
The Third period started of great for Prince George, as Leo Fitzgerald snipe a shot top corner to make it 4-1. The highlight of the third period came when Cody Bardock took a shot from the point, that missed everyone, including the goaltender, giving him his first ever BCHL goal. The crowd gave him a nice salute, while Ben Matthews made sure to scoop up the puck for him. The Warriors would add a goal from Marcus Basara, but that is as close as they'd get, and have to head back to Kelowna after dropping two straight in Prince George.
The win gives Prince George 43 points on the season, which is good for 3rd place at the moment. They sit 3 points up on 4th place Chilliwack, but the Chiefs do have three games in hand. They also sit 6 points up on 5th place Vernon, who have two games in hand.
For tonight's box scores, click here
The Spruce Kings are flying high right now, having won their last 4 games. This is a team that can make some real noise going forward, as long as they stick to their game. The big three up front continue to score big goals, and they'll need to continue to do so. The secondary scoring is coming together, as the Fitzgerald are adding points at the right time, while the Defence has scored some big goals lately. The goaltending has been very strong as well, and will need to get even better as they try to get back to the playoffs for the first time in two years. Also don't forget that the trade deadline is on January 10th, and with the Spruce Kings down 2 forwards, they will likely be big players from now, until then. Stay tuned to the blog for all the updates.
The Three Stars:
3) (PG )Leo Fitzgerald – 1 Goal
2) (PG) Cody Bardock – First BCHL Goal
1) (PG) Paul De Jersey – 2 Goals
Next Up:
The Spruce Kings are getting set for a huge three game weekend. Next Friday they will battle Chilliwack. The following night they will travel to Penticton to take on the high flying Vees. Then they will head to Vernon to face off against a team that they are fighting against for the 3rd and 4th playoff spot. Be sure to head to the BCHL website to catch all the action.
No comments:
Post a Comment