The offence dried up, and the Prince George Spruce Kings exited the B.C. Hockey League playoffs in the minimum number of games.
Tuesday night at the Coliseum, the Merritt Centennials completed a sweep of the Kings in the best-of-seven Interior Conference semifinal series. The Cents created the better scoring chances all night long and left the ice with a 3-1 victory.
In the series, the third-seeded Kings managed just six goals against the second-ranked Cents.
Leo Fitzgerald was the only Prince George marksman on Tuesday, while Merritt got its offence from Evan Stack, Chad Brears and Carter Shinkaruk.
Merritt led 1-0 after the first period and 3-1 after the second. The third period was scoreless, but the Kings were certainly given their chances. They had three power plays but weren't particularly dangerous on any of them.
The Kings tied the game 1-1 in the second period with a pretty shorthanded marker by Leo Fitzgerald, who snuck behind the Merritt defence and was found all alone by his brother, Myles. Leo then snapped a hard shot past Cents goalie Lino Chimienti.
But, after that, things fell apart for the Kings. On the same power play, the Centennials broke up ice and Brears finished off a passing play in front of Kings goalie Ty Swabb, who was back in the nets after giving way to Kirk Thompson in Monday's 4-3 overtime loss.
After the Brears goal, the Coliseum crowd rained abuse down on referees Dexter Rasmussen and Korey Martens because P.G. 's Tyson Witala had been tripped up just before the rush. At the same time, Kings forward Jarryd Ten Vaanholt was down on the ice, injured after a knee-on-knee hit by a Merritt player. Ten Vaanholt did return in the third period.
As if the 2-1 Merritt lead wasn't bad enough for the Kings, league scoring champion Paul De Jersey was booted from the game 43 seconds later for a hit to the head on Merritt's Brent Fletcher.
The Centennials didn't score on that five-minute power play but put another dagger into the Kings with a late goal by Shinkaruk, who was all alone in the high slot and beat Swabb through a crowd in front of the net.
The Kings trailed 1-0 after the first period and, with the number of giveaways they committed, were fortunate not to be down by more.
The goal, with just 1:18 left on the clock, was a power-play marker by Stack, his third of the series. The Merritt captain, who scored the winner in Monday's OT victory, was parked on the doorstep and snapped home a centering pass from Regan Soquila. The Cents were on the power play because of an undisciplined penalty by Witala, who had delivered a cross check to the head of Fletcher while Fletcher was down on the ice in front of the Kings' net.
The Kings played the game without defenceman Ben Woodley and forward Michael Betz, who were both scratched from the lineup.
In the Interior final, the Centennials will face the winner of the Penticton Vees-Chilliwack Chiefs semifinal series. The Vees and Chiefs are tied 2-2 after a 3-1 Tuesday victory by Chilliwack.
