Presto magic, the Prince George Spruce Kings made their losing streak disappear.
To be more precise, it took the hockey wizardry of 20-year-old centre Preston Brodziak to finally put the boots to that six-game B.C. Hockey League slide.
Brodziak returned to the lineup Friday after missing two games with a suspension and the native of Estevan, Sask., had a hand in all three goals in a 3-2 victory over the Surrey Eagles at South Surrey Arena.
He began his two-goal, one-assist night by setting up Corey Cunningham's team-leading 13th goal of the season late in the first period. Brodziak then gave the Kings a 2-0 lead with the only goal of the second period, scoring while shorthanded 14:34 in.
The Eagles finally got to Kings goalie Jett Alexander 7:12 into the third period when Cristophe Tellier popped in his 17th of the year, triggering a teddy bear attack from the crowd of 827 in attendance.
The winning goal came 13:24 into the third when Brodziak finished off a Kings' power play setup from Nick Bochen and Fin Williams. The Eagles pulled goalie Thomas Scarfone and Hudson Schandor scored on the 6-on-5 to make it a one-goal game with 44 seconds left.
Surrey came close to tying it and had the puck in the Kings' end for most of the remainder of the game, but Alexander came up with a couple of big stops and Schandor hit the crossbar seconds before the buzzer went off.
Alexander finished with 28 saves to improve his record to 12-16-0-0-0 and was iced the game's first star. The Eagles outshot the Kings 30-29.
Prince George went 1-for-6 on the power play and held the Eagles without a goal in six opportunities.
The Spruce Kings (12-21-2-3-0) moved to within four points of the Eagles (14-17-2-3-0), who hold down fourth place in the Mainland Division. In their final game of 2019, the Kings will play Sunday afternoon (2:30 p.m.) in Langley against the Rivermen, who are in action Saturday night at home against Alberni Valley.
