It was standing room only Saturday at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena as hockey fans turned out in droves to give the Prince George Spruce Kings a proper send-off.
Fans of the Spruce Kings won’t get to see their team play at home again until Feb. 9 and the crowd of 1,969 wanted to give their club a boost knowing that February date is now the only remaining home game this regular season.
But all that hometown support wasn’t enough to put down the Chilliwack Chiefs. They scored on their first shot, five seconds into the game, and rolled to a 5-2 victory, their second win in two days over their BCHL Mainland Division rivals.
Chiefs captain Jordan Kawaguchi led the Chilliwack cause with a goal and an assist, which helped move the second-place Chiefs (28-9-5-0) 18 points ahead of the fourth-place Spruce Kings (19-18-3-2) in the division standings.
Will Calverley’s shot from the blueline sailed over the glove of Kings starting goalie Aris Anagnostopoulos just five seconds after the opening face-off. The Kings responded with a tying goal 30 seconds later, when Tyler Anderson found the net behind Mark Sinclair. But another long shot from Chiefs forward Oliver Arseneau beat Anagnostpouous and he was taken out of the game, replaced by Tavin Grant after allowing two goals on eight shots in 9:19 of playing time.
The Chiefs put three more into the net behind Grant. Kohen Olischefski notched the only goal of the second period to make it a 3-1 count and Jake Smith and Kawaguchi scored in the third period to put the wraps on the victory.
Ben Brar capped the scoring late on a Spruce Kings power play, his 10th goal and 13th point in 19 games since arriving in Prince George in a trade from Penticton. The Kings finished 1-for-6 with the man advantage. Chilliwack’s power play was 0-for-4.
Sinclair made 27 saves as the game’s first star. The Chiefs’ goalie blocked 49 shots Friday in a 3-2 double-overtime win over Prince George.
The Spruce Kings are on the road this week with games Friday and Saturday in Wenatchee. The BCHL-leading Wild (32-6-4-0) has yet to lose in 22 games at home this season, going 20-0-2-0. In five games against the Spruce Kings this season, three in Prince George and two in Wenatchee, the Wild has outscored Prince George a combined 35-8.
All five of the Spruce Kings’ remaining games in January and 10 of their 11 games in February will be played on the road. The only home game left on the schedule is on Thursday, Feb. 9 against West Kelowna.
