With two of their top forwards on the shelf the Prince George Spruce Kings salvaged a three-game road trip by taking an early lead in West Kelowna and playing solid defensively in the final 40 minutes to snap a losing skid.
The Spruce Kings (7-6-0-1) had a 3-1 lead after the first period Saturday night at Royal LePage Place and held on for a 3-2 win over the West Kelowna Warriors (9-3-0-1), wrapping up the first portion of a six-game B.C. Hockey League road trip with a win and two losses. The win also snapped a three-game losing streak for the Spruce Kings.
Prince George was without forwards Brent Lashuk and Jake LeBrun and their combined 23 points as both players recuperate from concussions.
Justin Rai, who had his best game since joining the Spruce Kings last season, according to head coach Dave Dupas setup Skylar Pacheco midway through the first period to give the visitors a 1-0 lead and 18 seconds later Rai scored his second goal of the season to extend the advantage to 2-0.
"It's really good for us to score a couple of goals and put ourselves in a position where we can shut the other team down," said Dupas. "We're such a good defensive team that when we get the lead it's tough on the other team."
Prince George native Seb Lloyd pulled the Warriors within a goal at 2-1, set up by former Western Hockey League player Tyson Dallman and former Cariboo Cougar Liam Blackburn, but two minutes later the Spruce Kings regained their two-goal lead on a power-play goal by defenceman Christian Weidauer.
Spruce Kings goalie Alex Murray made 18 saves, including nine in the third period as the Warriors fired 10 pucks at him, but only Carl Hesler was able to get a shot past the 20-year-old.
The Spruce Kings started the road trip through the Interior division with a 4-1 loss Thursday in Merritt and then dropped a 2-0 game in Penticton on Friday night.
Dupas said the games were closer then the scores indicated, adding the Kings out chanced Penticton in their own building, while after a slow start in Merritt his squad actually started to take over the game and even appeared to make it a 3-2 game early in the third period.
"It was an odd-man rush for us and one of their back-checkers came back and dove to do something to break up the pass and he kind of slid into the net just as the puck was going in and the ref said the net was off before the puck went in," said Dupas. "It stayed 3-1 and we started pushing and taking more chances and when we did that they were able to get another goal on an odd-man rush. It looked like a blowout and it really wasn't."
The Spruce Kings return to the road this weekend for a trio of Mainland division games against the Surrey Eagles (5-8-0) on Friday and Saturday, before facing the division leading Langley Rivermen (9-3-0-1) in a Sunday matinee. Eight of the Spruce Kings next 10 games are on the road. The team will be without LeBrun on the weekend, though Lashuk appears to be getting closer to returning. Dupas said the timeline on LeBrun's recovery is about three weeks, while Lashuk is day to day.
