For two periods Sunday night, Tavin Grant and the Prince George Spruce Kings held off the Chilliwack Chiefs and had a lead to show for their efforts.
But something had to give in the third period and it wasn’t what the road-weary Kings envisioned in the finale of their B.C. Hockey League regular season.
They gave up two goals while being outshot 19-3 and lost 4-3 to the Chiefs in front of a crowd of 3,254 in Chilliwack.
Chiefs’ leading scorer Jordan Kawaguchi tied it 51 seconds into final period and Will Calverley gave the Chiefs what they needed to lock up their 41st win of the season.
The Kings held a 3-0 lead for more than half the game. Travis Schneider opened the scoring in the first period and after Adam Burnett doubled the lead 2:29 into the second period, Schneider struck again, scoring his 12th of the season 18 seconds after Burnett’s goal.
But the Kings ran into penalty trouble and Calverley and Kawaguchi both scored power-play goals late in the second period to make it a one-goal game.
Shots ended up 43-23 in favour of the Chiefs. Josh Boulding made 11 saves on 14 shots before he was lifted after Schneider’s second goal. Aiden Kirkpatrick picked up the win in relief of Boulding, making nine saves in 37:06 of playing time.
The Spruce Kings lost 7-0 Saturday night to the Langley Rivermen. Braeden Fleming stopped all 20 Prince George shots he faced for his second shutout of the week over the Kings, who lost 4-0 in Langley a week ago Monday.
Nik Ponak and Max Kaufman each scored twice for the Rivermen and Cooper Leitch, Andrew Dumaresque and Cameron Ginetti also scored. Grant took the loss in net for the Kings, who opened their weekend trip with a 4-1 win Friday in Coquitlam.
The Spruce Kings (25-27-4-2) finished fourth in the Mainland Division and will start a best-of-seven first-round playoff series on Saturday in Wenatchee against the first-overall Wild (45-9-4-0). The Chiefs (41-11-6-0) ended up second in the Mainland and will open the playoffs at home against Langley.
Wild centre Brendan Harris won the BCHL scoring crown with 23 goals and 75 assists for 98 points. Spruce Kings centre Brett Mennear (25-54-79) finished fourth in the scoring race.
