The Prince George Spruce Kings were due for a blowout.
Their season is almost over, they won't be making the playoffs, but they still have plenty of pride in what they do on the ice and made a point of showing that Friday night to the Surrey Eagles.
They blasted the Eagles 9-3, in a chippy affair in front of a big crowd of 1,422 at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
Kyle Johnson, Connor Logan and Jarod Hovde each scored two goals to spice up the Spruce Kings offence, while Ryan Fritz, Cavin Tilsley and Braiden Epp fired singles.
Brett Stewart, Tyler Cooper and Gage Mackie were the Surrey snipers.
The win left the Kings with a 12-35-3-1 record, 14 points ahead of the last-overall Eagles in the B.C. Hockey League standings. Surrey's record dropped to 6-40-0-2.
The Kings scored four unanswered goals in the second period to take control. Johnson waited patiently for goalie Daniel Davidson to go down as he dragged the puck across the crease before lifting in a backhander and Logan succeeded with a jam-in from the side. Tilsley popped in a rebound and Hovde scored on a long wrist shot 16:15 into the second to put the Kings up 7-2 heading into the third period.
"The second period was one of our better periods of the year," said Kings head coach Chad van Diemen. "To be able to score four goals and hold them to four shots was outstanding."
Johnson got the Kings started 1:23 into the game while the teams were playing 4-on-4. He entered the Surrey zone and when the Eagles defence got crossed up with Hovde, Johnson took the puck in deep and scored his eighth of the season. Fritz made it a 2-0 count with a point shot through a screen a minute later - the first of the season for the 19-year-old defenceman.
The Eagles got their first one past Liam McCloskey with a wicked shot from the face-off circle off the stick of pointman Brett Stewart while Surrey was on a power play. Kings forward Logan made it a 3-1 with a long shot from centre that snuck under the trapper of Eagles starting goalie Justin Laforest, who got yanked after that play, 13 minutes into the game. The Kings obviously remembered the last time they faced Laforest in early January in Surrey where he turned in a superhuman effort to preserve a 2-2 tie with the Kings.
"Good things happen when you put the puck on net and they peppered 65 shots on him the last time we were there - it's nice when some of those go in and we were able to come out in the second period and build some momentum," said van Diemen.
Shots ended up 35-23 in favour of the Kings.
The same teams meet tonight in the rematch. Game time is 7 p.m.
Friday game summary:
Eagles 3, Spruce Kings 9
First Period
1. Prince George, Johnson 7 (Funk) 1:23
2. Prince George, Fritz 1 (Pener, Tilsley) 2:35
3. Surrey, Stewart 9 (Azar, McAvoy) 11:51 (pp)
4. Prince George, Logan 5, 13:00
5. Surrey, Cooper 3 (Mostat, Anselmo 15:23 (pp)
Second Period
6. Prince George, Johnson 8, 4:48
7. Prince George, Logan (Stief, Johnson 6:32 (pp)
8. Prince George, Tilsley 7 (Sandberg, Stief) 9:02
9. Prince George, Hovde 6 (Stoley) 16:15
Third Period
10. Surrey, Mackie 7 (Joseph) 3:32
11. Prince George, Hovde 7 (Johnson, Colley) 4:36
12. Prince George, Epp 8 (Stief, Ponak) 10:07
Shots on goal by
Surrey 9 4 10 - 23
Prince George 10 17 8 - 35
Goal - Surrey, Laforest and, at 13:00 of first, Davidson (L,5-14-0); Prince George, McCloskey (W,7-17-1).
Power plays - SU: 2-5; PG: 1-6.
Attendance - 1,422.
Referees - Tyler Garden, Greg Taylor; Linesmen - Josh Albinati, Ben Yeager.
