The Prince George Spruce Kings had the Powell River Kings right where they wanted them.
But the brief comfort they gained from a two-goal lead on the visitors from the Sunshine Coast vanished in an instant.
Goals 52 seconds apart from Powell River shooters Tristan Mullin and Jonny Evans brought them back to even terms and set the stage for five-goal eruption in the third period which added up to a 7-3 Powell River triumph Sunday at the Coliseum.
That came on the same rink, less than 24 hours after the Spruce Kings put together one of their most complete games of the B.C. Hockey League season in a 4-3 win over the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
After knotting it 2-2, Powell River stormed the Spruce Kings with 22 shots in the third period and took advantage of Spruce Kings goalie Liam McCloskey's struggles with rebound control and scored three unanswered goals in the first nine minutes of the third period. That put the damper on an otherwise solid weekend for 17-year-old rookie netminder, who made 33 saves as the game's second star Saturday to beat the Silverbacks.
Mullin's second goal came on a Powell River power play with 2:20 gone in the third period and nobody was blaming McCloskey for that one after he made the first two saves before the loose puck kicked out to Mullin in the slot. Carter Turnbull's gamewinner 8:26 came after a high point shot bounced off McCloskey's chest right to Turnbull. Thirteen seconds later, Jeremey Leipsic burned Kings defenceman Adam Brubacher with an outside move and finished with a deke on McCloskey.
"We were up 2-0 there but we have to step on their throats and finish them early, we can't let them claw back," said Spruce Kings winger Braiden Epp. "We had a five-minute lapse in the third period where we weren't finishing our bodychecks and weren't watching the high guy coming in and they scored three or four quick goals."
To their credit, the Spruce Kings didn't quit and Mathew Stief picked up his second goal of the game and third this season to make it a 5-3 game with two minutes left. The Kings went on the power play in the final minute but gave up a shorthanded empty-net goal to Kyle Betts and allowed Austin Kamer to score another shortie with one second left.
"I thought we battled really hard the first two periods but in the third period we can't take our foot off the gas," said Stief. "We have to stay strong and come out and stay focused and good things will happen if we do that. It feels nice to put up some points but at the end of the day it's all about winning."
Connor Logan and Nick Guerra gave the Spruce Kings their brief lead early in the second period.
Powell River dodged a bullet 13 minutes into that period when referee Jeff Eden waived off a apparent goal jammed in by Calvin Tilsley.
'That was one of the turning points of the game," said Spruce Kings winger Braiden Epp. "What I saw from the bench was the puck went in under (goalie Jeff Smith's) pad and his pad was in the net, so I don't see how it wouldn't be a goal, but you can't change that."
The loss left the Spruce Kings (7-18-0-2) with the second-worst record in the 17-team BCHL. Powell River (14-10-0-1) ranks third in the Island Division, four points out of first place.
On Saturday, Epp's first power-play goal of the season with less than six minutes left proved the difference. The 20-year-old also assisted on Stief' power-play goal 12:48 into the third period which tied the game.
Stephen Penner, Adam Brubacher and Stief also scored for Spruce Kings, who went 3-for-eight on the power play. The Silverbacks got goals from Josh Laframboise, Taro Hirose and Colton Thibault. Salmon Arm (16-6-2-1) lost both its games this season to Prince George.
"We've had a few pretty good wins and our (on Saturday) our power play was able to win us a hockey game," said Spruce Kings head coach Chad van Diemen.
"(Sunday) we had a pretty good first period and started the second very well but we allowed them back in the game."
LOOSE PUCKS: The Spruce Kings lost their captain and leading goalscorer in the first period Saturday when 20-year-old winger Jake LeBrun got checked into the side boards while off-balance trying to hold the puck in the offensive zone. LeBrun, who had 11 goals and 14 points in 23 games, is due to undergo surgery this week at UHNBC to repair a broken collar bone... The Spruce Kings called up defenceman Jesse Pomeroy from the Cariboo Cougars major midget team and also utilized the services of 16-year-old right winger Ethan De Jong, the Burnaby Winter Club under-18 team's leading scorer. De Jong brought an abundance of energy on a line with Corey Hoffman and Parker Colley and was named the third star Sunday.
