The Prince George Spruce Kings ' power outage continues.
The Merritt Centennials zapped them 4-1 Thursday night in Merritt, the second-straight loss for the Spruce Kings as they began a three-game-in-three-nights B.C. Hockey League tour.
Sebastien Pare scored two goals for Merritt and goalie Connor LaCouvee made 27 stops to preserve the Cents' fourth consecutive victory.
The Kings trailed 2-0 after one period and the Cents increased their lead with a power-play goal early in the second period.
Colin Chemelka, called up as an injury replacement to fill in for Jake LeBrun and Brent Lashuk, both out with concussions, was involved in a knee-on-knee collision with Cents defenceman Dylan Bowen with 45 seconds gone in the second period. Chemelka was issued a major penalty for kneeing and a game misconduct. The Cents' power-play went to work on its first chance of the game and Dane Burke was able to beat Kings goalie Alex Murray to make it a 3-0 game at the 2:11 mark of the second.
Chad Staley got the Kings on board late in the period with a high wrist shot that beat LaCouvee, the only goal allowed by the 19-year-old native of Qualicum Beach.
Adam Tracey also scored for Merritt.
Shots were 38-28 in favour of the Cents.
The Spruce Kings were coming off a 1-0 loss to the Victoria Grizzlies at home Saturday at the Coliseum.
The win allowed the Cents (7-5-0-0) to move into a tie for second place in the Interior Division with the Penticton Vees (7-3-0-0), who will host the Spruce Kings (6-5-0-1) tonight in Penticton. The Kings conclude their Interior Division tour Saturday in Westside against the division-leading West Kelowna Warriors (8-2-0-1), who play at home against Merritt tonight.
