Just under five minutes were left on the clock and dark clouds were descending upon the Prince George Spruce Kings.
They trailed the Cranbrook Bucks by a goal Thursday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena and it was starting to look like the Kings were destined to be heading back to Cranbrook one game away from elimination in the B.C. Hockey League playoffs.
But all of a sudden, the hockey gods smiled upon the Spruce Kings and their fortunes changed abruptly. Goals from Nick Rheaume and his linemate Simon Labelle less than three minutes apart lifted the Kings to a 3-2 victory over the Bucks and a 3-2 lead in their Interior Conference quarterfinal series, with a chance to wrap up it up Saturday in Cranbrook.
The winner came with 80 seconds left. Labelle scooped up the puck in the Kings’ end and as he crossed the blueline he dished it to linemate Nick Rheaume. Rheaume’s shot was blocked but he grabbed the puck again and fed it to Labelle, who spun off his check, Carsyn Good, and found the far corner of the net with a low shot.
“I think Nick did a great job, we were trying to throw the puck to the net and that’s what he did and I just got it and shot it on net and it ended up in the goal,” said Labelle. “It was a big one and it felt good.
“We gave up two unfortunate goals on the power play to them, but we stuck to our structure and got two more, so we’re happy. We’re an older team and that helps us in games like this, for sure. The adrenaline was going, all the boys on the bench we’re excited and it’s critical to have that, you don’t even feel your legs out there.”
The Kings' top line, with Rheaume on the right side, Labelle at left wing, with Rowan Miller at centre had its best game of the series and they were in on the tying goal with 4:02 left and the Kings on the power play.
Defenceman Josh Wright, who nailed the goalpost a few minutes earlier on another Prince George power play, launched a shot from the point that was stopped by goalie Nathan Airey but the rebound was left in the crease for Rheaume and the 20-year-old from Quebec lifted the loose puck high into the open cage.
“We battled for 56 minutes and it just sucks that we took four minutes off at the end,” said Bucks centre Tyson Dyck. “It just feels like we were right there from taking a 3-2 lead back to Cranbrook. I’ve got a belief in the guys and I know they’re ready to get back on the bus back home ad well go get the job done and see what happens Monday back here.”
The Bucks had a great chance to tie it with just five seconds left. Noah Quinn won the draw back to Johnny Johnson and he got a quick shot away from point-blank range but Kings goalie Aaron Trotter, celebrating his 21st birthday, grabbed the puck with his glove. Johnson's last-ditch effort was an anxious ending for the Kings and their fans on the crowd of 1,003 and Kings head coach Alex Evin said he couldn’t bear to watch as the Bucks forward unleashed his shot.
“I had my eyes closed, I don’t know what happened,” quipped Evin.
“We still have to get one more but we’ve been a resilient group all season, battling ups and down and adversity and the biggest thing with adversity is you’ve got to accept it and go after it and we got rewarded for that in the third period,” he said.
“From the media time-out in the first, I thought we played an excellent 5-on-5 game. Our pace was good, we managed the puck pretty well. It was unfortunate we took a couple penalties and credit to them, they capitalized, and that’s what you’ve got to do on the road. But we hung in there and credit to our kids, they pulled it off, it was impressive.”
The Kings broke a scoreless draw 1:19 into the second period. The play started deep in the Kings end when Amran Bhabra chased down a dump-in in the Kings’ end and chipped the pass up to Luc Laylin. He passed to linemate Kolton Cousins and broke into the Bucks’ zone to create a 2-on-1. Cousins fed him the puck off the right-side boards and Laylin finished with a backhand-forehand deke high into the net behind Airey.
Penalties proved costly to the Spruce Kings later in the period. The Bucks were able to generate sustained pressure on their second power play of the game and Dyck, their leading scorer in the regular season with 34 goals and 75 points in 54 games, collected his third of the playoffs at the 15:41 mark, a hard shot from the top of the circle that went in off the glove of Trotter.
With Ben LeFranc off for high-sticking late in the period, Trotter bailed out his team in a big way when he shot across the crease to deny a tap-in attempt from Dyck. The Kings came close to killing off the penalty but Rheaume’s clearing attempt was held in at the blueline by Bucks defenceman Bauer Morrissey. He chipped the puck over to Kellen Hjartarson and he launched a high wrister that caught the inside of the post and went in to give the Bucks a 2-1 lead to take into the second intermission.
The Kings dominated the third period, taking advantage of two Cranbrook penalties to outshoot the Bucks 14-4.
“For the last little bit we trusted the process the whole way, just getting the puck deep and getting pucks to the net and good things happen,” said Bhabra. “We knew what we had to do and home ice is awesome, a great crowd, and we got the job done. But it’s not all the way finished and we’ve got to seal the deal. Now we know, we’ve got to have a good start, we can’t be slacking down there. They’re going to come out desperate and we’ve got to want it more.”
The Kings won the first two games on home ice by identical 4-1 scores. The Bucks took Game 3 on Monday 3-0 and tied the series Tuesday with a 5-3 win. The teams immediately boarded their buses for the trip to Cranbrook. Saturday’s Game 6 starts at 6 p.m., PT. If a Game 7 is needed it would be played Monday in Prince George.
Bucks head coach and general manager Ryan Donald has a younger team and they let the Spruce Kings wriggle off the hook, just when it appeared they had that one road victory they need to win the series.
“We took a lot about minimizing your mistakes in the playoffs and I felt like we made too many in the third period for sure, and penalties add up,” said Donald. “You can’t play four minutes shorthanded in the third period when you’re trying to win a hockey game.”
BCHL playoffs
Interior Conference quarterfinal
Prince George Spruce Kings vs. Cranbrook Bucks
(Spruce Kings lead best-of-seven series 3-2)
Game 5
Thursday summary
Bucks 2 at Spruce Kings 3
First Period
No scoring
Penalties – Kindrachuk Cra (tripping) 2:40, Herrington PG (holding) 16:40.
Second Period
1. Prince George, Laylin 5 (Cousins, Bhabra) 1:19
2. Cranbrook, Dyck 3 (Quinn, Bentham) 15:41 (pp)
3. Cranbrook, Hjartarson 1 (Morrissey) 18:59 (pp)
Penalties – Phoh Cra (tripping) 10:00, Rheaume PG (interference) 13:50, LeFranc PG (high-sticking) 17:12.
Third Period
4. Prince George, Rheaume2 (Wright) 15:58 (pp)
5. Prince George, Labelle 3 (Rheaume, Miller) 18:40
Penalties – Quinn Cra (tripping) 8:19, Rogers Cra (tripping) 15:51.
Shots on goal by
Cranbrook 8 10 4 -22
Prince George 11 13 14 -38
Goal – Cranbrook, Airey (L,2-3); Prince George, Trotter (W,3-2)
Power play - CR: 2-3; PG: 1-3.
Referees – Bronson Tazalaar, Nic Panter Linesmen – Caden Fanshaw, Tyler Garden.
Attendance – 1,003.
