Jump-started by the return of their heart and soul after an extended absence, the Prince George Spruce Kings still have a pulse beating its way to a B.C. Hockey League championship.
They defeated the Wenatchee Wild 4-2 Tuesday night in Game 4 of the Fred Page Cup final to stay alive in the series, still trailing three games to one.
Ethan de Jong scored two goals to pace the Kings. Kyle Johnson and Patrick Cozzi fired singles. Evan DeBrouwer made 29 saves for his 13th win of the playoffs, denying the Wild the chance to become the first American-based team to win the title since the Bellingham Blazers did it in 1979.
The series resumes with Game 5 Thursday (7:05 p.m.) in Wenatchee, Wash. If it goes beyond that, Game 6 would be played Saturday night in Prince George, with Game 7 scheduled for Monday night in Wenatchee.
The Spruce Kings got a huge lift to start the game when they learned forward Ben Poisson, their second-leading scorer in the regular season at the time he got hurt, would be making his first appearance of the playoffs, after missing more than two months with a ruptured spleen.
Poisson got medical clearance to play from his doctor in Vancouver at 3:30 p.m., boarded the next flight to Prince George at 5:30, and with tail-wind assistance the plane touched down at the airport at 6:30, a half-hour before game time.
He got on the ice 12:50 into the first period with the Kings already ahead 1-0 on a power-play goal from Johnson. Five seconds into his first shift, Poisson almost made it 2-0. Linemate de Jong spotted Poisson busting in from the bench and hit him with a perfect pass in the face-off circle and if not for Austin Park's, stick-on-the-ice paddle save, it would have been a two-goal lead for the Spruce Kings.
"It's huge for the team to get one and have a chance to go back down and play," said Poisson, "Now we got one we know it's possible and we can come back and get a few more. The guys know we can do it."
Poisson had a whirlwind day and he couldn't get dressed fast enough in the Kings' dressing room knowing he was finally getting back into a game, one of the biggest in the Spruce Kings' 22-year BCHL history.
"I came right off the plane and came here and got dressed in five minutes and hopped on the ice and my legs were a little shaky off the start, I almost tripped coming off the bench," said Poisson. "I came down and got the puck and it just started bobbling. I had the net and it just hit his stick. It would have been awesome.
"It felt great, after the first couple shifts I settled in and was ready to go."
Spruce Kings coach Adam Maglio kept Poisson's shifts to 15 seconds while he warmed up to his first game action since Feb. 10, playing on the same rink where he suffered a ruptured spleen when he fell into the end boards chasing down a loose puck. In three first-period shifts Poison had two shots on goal, both great scoring opportunities.
Cozzi made that 2-0 lead a reality with just 10 seconds remaining in the first period when he blocked a shot at the far blueline, which set up a 2-on-1 break with Nolan Welsh. With the puck rolling on his stick, Cozzi wisely elected to shoot rather than pass and he smoked it, going bar-down for his fifth goal and 18th point of the playoffs.
The Wild stormed back in the second period with two goals to tie the game. The first came 6:22 into the period when defenceman Liam Watson-Brawn coughed up the puck to Lucas Sowder in Kings' end and Sowder fed it to AJ Vanderbeck, who rifled a high backhander in to the net behind DeBrouwer. Then at 10:28, on a delayed penalty to Kings defenceman Chays Ruddy, the Wild got the extra skater out and had the Kings pinned in their zone for an extended period when Josh Arnold set up Lukas Svejkovsky for his first goal of the playoffs, a tap-in while standing just off the post.
Not long after that, Park came up with one of his best saves of the series, shooting across the crease at the last second to deny Johnson as he dragged the puck through the goalmouth and shot at the gaping net.
The Wild owned the puck for long stretches in the latter stages of the second period but it remained a 2-2 game until the final minute. Park tried to clear the zone with his goalstick and it was picked off by Ben Brar, who got the puck to de Jong and the Quinnipiac University recruit batted it in from the side of the net for his 12th of the postseason. The goal came with 29 seconds left in the period.
De Jong capped the scoring on another Kings' power play with 1:21 left, finishing off a nifty give-and-go play with Dylan Anhorn by tucking the puck in along the ice from a sharp angle.
DeBrouwer was at his best in the third period and he preserved the lead with a scintillating shoulder save off Sowder with about three minutes to play.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Spruce Kings and Wild both slept overnight in Prince George and will travel today to Wenatchee, a 13-hour trip. The Spruce Kings will be using the WHL Prince George Cougars' bus for the trip. Theirs broke down on the Coquihalla Highway near Kelowna on the way back from Wenatchee on Sunday, the second time this season they've blown a motor. This time it's under warranty...The BCHL champs will host the first two games of the Doyle Cup championship, a best-of-seven series against the Alberta Junior Hockey League winners, which starts April 27. The Okotoks Oilers stayed alive in the AJHL Inter Pipeline Cup championship Tuesday night in Spruce Grove, Alta., with a 4-1 win over the Saints. Spruce Grove leads that series 3-1 with Game 5 set for Okotoks on Friday. The Doyle Cup winner advances to the RBC Cup national tournament in Chilliwack, May 12-20.
