Bo Didur did it again to the Prince George Spruce Kings.
But this time, he was wearing a different jersey.
The 17-year-old Langley Rivermen netminder was flawless Thursday night, making 39 saves in a 2-0 shutout victory over the Prince George Spruce Kings in front of 736 witnesses at the Coliseum.
Last season, as a 16-year-old backup goalie for the Surrey Eagles, Didur almost singlehandedly beat the Spruce Kings while making 32 saves as the first star in a 2-1 Eagles' win on Nov. 16, 2013.
Now he's the Langley starter and he upped the ante Thursday, handing the first-place Spruce Kings their second loss of the B.C. Hockey League season.
Didur made it look easy putting up a shield against the Kings, who came into the game scoring an average 4.13 goals per game. But he got plenty of help along the way from his teammates, who were extremely effective clearing the bodies in front of him on the ice. While they did get a lot of shots, the Kings were limited to only a few Grade-A scoring opportunities.
In a fast-paced, tight-checking affair, the Rivermen were getting outshot 20-6 in the second period when their forwards finally connected for two goals, 40 seconds apart, twice exposing lapses in the Kings' defensive zone coverage. Langley's leading scorer, Gage Torrel, took a feed from linemate Marcus Vela and spotted winger Dante Hahn parked beside the right post for an easy tap-in behind Alex Brooks-Potts at the 6:31 mark. Then at 8:11, Bowling Green recruit Ryan Coulter won a battle for a loose puck behind the Kings' net and rifled a pass into the slot for Hunter Anderson to make it 2-0.
The Kings answered with a strong pushback that kept the Rivermen penned in their own zone facing a bit of a shooting gallery. But none of the Kings could get a puck past Didur, a native of West Vancouver, who covered his angles well and gave up few rebounds while earning his first BCHL career shutout.
One of the keys to the success of the Rivermen was the job they did shutting down the Kings' top scoring line. Justin Rai, the second-leading scorer in the BCHL with 14 points, was cruising along at a two-point-per game pace but came up empty-handed Thursday, as did his linemates Chad Staley and Jeremiah Luedtke.
Effective penalty killing all but doomed the Kings, whose record dropped to 5-2-0-1.
The Prince George power play, which had been working at a 30.77 success rate, second-best in the BCHL through seven games, went 0-for-4.
The Rivermen were outshot 39-24.
The rematch starts with the puck drop tonight at 7 at the Coliseum.
