They piled up 47 shots on one of the top teams in the B.C. Hockey League but not enough of those pucks went into the net to suit the Prince George Spruce Kings.
That power-play failure didn't help the Kings' cause either.
They had the Victoria Grizzlies on the defensive side of the ice for much of their game Sunday afternoon in Victoria and were down by only a goal in the third period with four minutes of power-play time to work with but couldn't get one past goalie Tony Rehm.
The Grizzlies penalty-killers came up big and the BCHL's Island Division leaders responded with three goals in the third period to defeat the Spruce Kings 6-2.
Jamie Rome collected three goals and an assist for Victoria. Cole Pickup, Cameron Thompson and Marty Westhaver were the other goalscorers. Travis Schneider and Ben Poisson replied for the Spruce Kings, who lost two of three games on their final roadtrip before the Christmas break
Poisson had just scored his seventh of the season on a Kings' power play when the Grizzlies were forced to go on the PK again, killing off a two-man disadvantage that lasted 95 seconds. But they got through it unscathed. The Kings squandered another great opportunity to tie up 2:50 into the third period when Rome high-sticked Trent Huitema, leaving the Kings defenceman with a cut lip, which put the Kings on a four-minute power play. However, the league's third-best penalty-killing team did its job.
Thompson scored the insurance goal at 7:20 of the third and Rome followed up with two more later in the period to complete his second hat trick of the season.
"We didn't capitalize on the long 5-on-3 or on the double-minor in the third and when you get those opportunities, especially on the road, you need to get those," said Spruce Kings head coach Chad van Diemen. "You need to win the special teams battle and the goatending battle. We didn't get off to a great start and put ourselves behind the 8-ball early and it's hard to play catchup. You're not going to win many games when you give up six goals as a team."
The Kings ended up just on 1-for-7 on the power play, while the Grizzlies scored on one of their two chances. The shots ended up 47-35 in the Kings' favour.
Saturday night in Duncan, Ty Pochipinski scored an unassisted power-play goal 10:54 into the second period to give the Cowichan Valley Capitals the lead and Justin Perron added to the count in the third period which led to 4-2 defeat of the Spruce Kings.
Jared Domin and George Sennott staked the Caps to a 2-0 lead in the first period but Tyler Anderson, on a first-period power play, and Ethan de Jong, at even strength 8:44 into the second period, brought the Kings back on even terms. Adam Marcoux made 29 saves as the Spruce Kings outshot the Capitals 31-22. Grant was tagged with the loss.
Van Diemen didn't think his team was prepared for either of the games on Vancouver Island and made too many mistakes which led to goals the other way.
"We were careless with the puck, too many turnovers and chances the other way off the rush and it just snowballed," said van Diemen. "The last two games I didn't think we were ready to battle 60 minutes to win a tough game on the road. We have to find ways to win games we need to win and if you want to catch teams ahead of you in the standings you've got to win some of those games."
The Spruce Kings (16-14-2-2) remained fourth in the Mainland Division standings one point behind the Langley Rivermen, who have played one more game than Prince George. The Grizzlies improved to 23-6-3-4. The Kings started their three-game trip Friday in Coquitlam with an 8-3 win over the last-overall Express.
Following a week-long Christmas break, the Spruce Kings return to Prince George to take on Langley in a two-game set, Dec. 29 and 30 at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
