The retro ‘70’s jerseys were a nice touch to set the festive mood but there was a hockey game to be played and the Prince George Spruce Kings answered the bell.
They gave up a 3-0 lead to the Trail Smoke Eaters but finished the way they started, scoring twice on the power play in the final three minutes to seal a 5-3 victory Friday in front of 1,000 witnesses at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
Four of the five Spruce Kings goals came while they had the extra skater. They went 4-for-9 on the power play to improve their special teams’ stat to 21-for-51 through 11 games this season, a 41.2 per cent success rate.
Rowan Miller and Simon Labelle fired power-play strikes in the first period and Austin Fraser scored at even strength to give the Kings a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes. The Smokies responded with goals in the second period from Brady Hunter, on the power play, and Jackson Krill to make it a 3-2 game heading into the second intermission and Connor Michaud tied it 3-3 12:45 into the third period, with Nick Rheaume serving a cross-checking minor.
Back-to-back penalties to Charlie Strobel and Coalson Wolford gave the Kings the chance to take control of the game and they did exactly that when Miller tipped in a Dylan Schives point shot at for the gamewinner, 17:40 into the third period, followed by Reaume ‘s ninth of the season on the power play at 18:33.
Shots favoured the Spruce Kings 40-26,
The win improved the Kings’ fourth-place B.C. Hockey League Interior Conference record to 8-3-0-0-0. Trail dropped to 5-4-1-0-0 and remained sixth in the Interior. The same teams meet again Saturday at RMCA. Game time is 7 p.m.
