The writing was on the wall for Justin Rai.
When the Prince George Spruce Kings needed an overtime hero to take care of the Surrey Eagles Saturday night at the Coliseum, all signs pointed to the 19-year-old left winger as the most likely candidate.
Rai, a native of Surrey, was the guy who opened the scoring, and then with a minute and change left in regulation time he fired what looked like the winner. But the Eagles forced the issue with a last-minute tying goal, and when given a chance to end it against the team he grew up watching, Rai made no mistake, blasting a one-timer past goalie Bo Didur, 1:16 into overtime.
"I went to a bunch of Eagles games when I was younger and to get my first career hat trick against them to win the game was definitely special," said Rai, who was set up by linemate Chad Staley after Kings defenceman Christian Weidauer forced a turnover in the Surrey end.
The teams came into Saturday's BCHL Mainland Division rubber match each having won three games with one tie in head-to-head play this season.
"They work hard right to the buzzer and we knew it was going to be a tough battle," said Rai. "They're not doing that well in the standings but they're never easy to play against. The boys did a good job of regrouping and settling down and preparing for overtime and luckily we pulled out the win."
Surrey sniper Danton Heinen tied it with his 18th of the season with 34 seconds left in regulation time and Didur benched for the extra skater. Chase McMurphy's high shot bounced off a stanchion above the end boards and ended up grazing the back of Kings goalie Alex Murray and Heinen was able to find the puck and push it across the goal line. That came after Staley twice missed shots at the open net while standing deep in the Surrey end.
The Eagles put three shots on goal to start overtime but Murray stood his ground, on the way to a solid 26-save performance which gave the 20-year-old from Burlington,. Ont., his 15th win of the season.
The Eagles showed signs in Friday's 5-3 loss to the Spruce Kings they weren't about to give up on the season despite unloading their two top scorers before Friday's trade deadline. They came back to the rink energized for the rematch and despite being outshot 11-3 in the opening period were tied with the Kings at a goal apiece after 20 minutes.
Both of those goals came on power plays. Rai snuck a low wrister in past a logjam of players in front of the net and late in the period Eagles rookie Quinn Lenihan batted in a cross-crease pass while parked near the post. The Kings ran into a string of penalties in the middle frame and Kale Bennett took early advantage, 2:53 into the period, banging in a loose puck from the side before Alex Murray could react.
Down 3-2, Rai and his linemates Staley and Jeremiah Luedtke started taking the play to the Eagles again and for a couple of shifts the Kings kept Didur under siege, which led to Marco Ballarin's equalizer, 8:07 into the third period.
Rai's go-ahead goal at 18:29 of the third was a thing of beauty as he managed to stay onside to accept a pass, then put on a burst of speed to beat his check to the outside. His first shot was stopped but he got his own rebound and deposited it in the net.
Anthony Conti, an Alaska-Anchorage recruit just picked up in a trade from Penticton, was the most dangerous Eagle all night, creating havoc in front of the Kings' net. The 18-year-old was left off the scoresheet but did draw some penalty time when he picked a fight in the first period with heavyweight 20-year-old Sean Landrey, who scored a clear-cut decision.
"They did give us us all we could handle," said Kings head coach Dave Dupas.
"That's a team that you think is getting lucky all the time with these bounces all the time but the more you watch them they just have such good sticks. Any bouncing puck they get their sticks on it, even if it's coming off the back wall, they have fantastic sticks and they win those battles so all the credit to them."
The Spruce Kings improved their second-place record to 24-13-2-2., while fourth-place Surrey sunk to 17-23-1-1. Prince George remained seven points behind the Langley Rivermen, who became the first BCHL team to clinch a playoff spot with their 5-2 win Saturday over Chilliwack. The Kings have three games in hand over Langley.
Aside from picking up just one of a possible four points in the standings, Eagles coach Peter Schaefer had no reason to not like the way his new-look team played in either game.
"The first game we got some unlucky bounces and the game didn't resemble the score and [Saturday] they scored with about a minute left to go ahead and we battled and kept the puck out of our empty net and went down and scored the tying goal," said Schaefer. "At the end of the day it was a great series, obviously not the result we wanted in the win column, but I'm happy with the progress in the guys we acquired."
