Justin Rai scored a pair of goals in the third period to help lift the Prince George Spruce Kings to a 6-3 win against the visiting Surrey Eagles Friday night at the Coliseum.
The victory snapped a brief two-game losing streak by the Kings who maintained their lead atop the B.C. Hockey League's Mainland Division with a 13-8-0-2 record and 28 points, three points ahead of the Chilliwack Chiefs who lost to the Powell River Kings 6-1 Friday night.
It was the Eagles ninth-straight loss and they remain in the cellar of the Mainland Division at 3-14-0-3.
Surrey may be the last-place team in the BCHL, but they sure didn't play like one Friday night.
They out-shot (35-30) and out-hustled the Kings for most of the game until Prince George finally got their legs going in the last 10 minutes of the game.
Tied at 2-2 at the midway point of the third period, Kings defenceman Adam Clements broke a 2-2 tie at the 11:51 mark.
That seemed to spark Prince George's offence when Rai tallied his first goal of the game on a goal-mouth scramble three minutes later.
Surrey forward Cole Plotnikoff narrowed the Kings lead to 4-3 two minutes later, but Rai notched his second of game at the 18:41-minute mark.
It was Rai's team-leading 14th goal of the season.
With Surrey netminder Kurt Russell pulled in favour of an extra attacker, Jake LeBrun added an empty-netter with 44 seconds left in the game.
The Kings didn't muster many offensive chances and were outshot 16-4 by the Eagles in the second period.
Thirty seconds into their power play at the 12:23 mark of the second period, Surrey forward Chase McMurphy tied the game at two-apiece on a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle .
Jarryd Leung gave the Spruce Kings a 2-1 lead when he wristed a shot past Russell at the 2:45-minute mark of the second period.
Kings captain Chad Staley tipped a shot from the point from defenceman Matt Stief to tie the game at 1-1 at the halfway mark of the first period.
Surrey got on the board first when forward Darius Davidson put a shot from in close past Kings netminder Alex Brooks-Potts five minutes into the first period.
It took a while for the Kings to get going. They were outshot 7-2 in the first 10 minutes of the game as Surrey dominated offensively.
Staley finished the night with a goal and three assists and he was named the first star of the game.
It was Alex Brooks-Potts sixth win of the season and was named the game's third star.
The two teams battle each other again tonight at the Coliseum at 7 p.m.
