The Prince George Spruce Kings have put themselves in position to overtake the Langley Rivermen for second place in the B.C. Hockey League's Mainland Division.
Friday night at the Coliseum, the Kings beat the Rivermen 5-3 and pulled to within one point of Langley in the standings.
The teams play again tonight (7 p.m., Coliseum) in the final outing of the regular season. A Kings' win will move Prince George into second place.
Heading into tonight's finale, the Kings have a 27-23-1-6 record, good for 61 points. The Rivermen, meanwhile, sit at 28-23-1-5 and have 62 points.
For the Kings, Friday's third period was the key to victory. In those final 20 minutes, they outscored the visitors 4-1 to erase what had been a 2-1 deficit after two periods.
Chad Staley, Jake LeBrun, Braiden Epp and Jeremiah Luedtke (into an empty net) were the Prince George marksmen. The Staley and Epp goals were power-play markers.
For Langley in the third, Kevan Kilistoff netted a power-play goal.
The Kings opened the scoring in the first period on a shorthanded, unassisted strike by Rider Stoglin. About four minutes later, Jacob Kearley scored an equalizer for Langley.
The Rivermen got the only goal of the second period, courtesy of Jordan Schneider.
The Kings outshot the Rivermen 37-33 in front of 1,042 fans. Jesse Jenks was the winning goaltender and Bo Didur took the loss.
