The word shootout has become four-letter word for the Prince George Spruce Kings this season.
It’s become a curse the Kings can’t seem to break.
Their inability to score in the showdown between goalie and shooter to decide a B.C. Hockey League outcome came back to haunt them again Saturday in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Wenatchee Wild in the second half of a weekend doubleheader at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
Ean Somoza scored the only goal of the shootout. Rowan Miller forced overtime when he tied the game for Prince George 23 seconds into the third period. A power-play goal from Cade Stibbe 13 minutes into the game gave the Wild the early lead.
Somoza’s goal sealed the Kings fate and they’ve now lost six of seven games that have gone to a shootout this season. Their only skill contest victory came Nov. 12 on home ice when Simon Labelle found the net to give the Kings a 3-2 decision.
The Kings peppered Wild goalie Tyler Shea with 41 shots through 65 minutes of hockey and he stopped 40 of them as the second star of the game. He also made the stops off Simon Labelle, Luc Laylin and Miller in the three-round shootout. Jordan Fairlie made 25 saves in goal for the Kings.
The silver lining in their loss Saturday is the Kings picked up another point in the standings and extended their point streak to 18 games. All six shootout losses have come during that streak, which started Dec. 30 in Wenatchee with a 2-1 shootout win for the Wild. The Kings have been outscored 11-3 in their seven shootouts.
The Spruce Kings began the weekend with a 3-1 win over Wenatchee on Friday.
Wenatchee improved its eighth-place Interior Conference record to 14-17-4-1-0 (.458 winning percentage), while Prince George remained third in the division (23-9-3-6-0, .671).
The Kings will hit the road for their next three games, Friday in Salmon Arm, Saturday in Penticton, and Family Day Monday, Feb. 21 in Vernon. They’ll be back at RMCA on Wednesday, Feb. 23 to face West Kelowna.
LOOSE PUCKS: Former Spruce Kings head coach Adam Maglio was fired Thursday as head coach of he WHL's Spokane Chiefs, following a 9-0 loss to the Portland WInterhawks. Maglio joined the Chiefs as an assistant in 2019 and took over as head coach in September 2020. In two seasons as head coach of the Spruce Kings he led the team to the BCHL final both years, winning the franchise's first Fred Page Cup/Doyle Cup championships in 2019. The Kings advanced to the national junior A hockey championship and lost in the final to Brooks... Ryan Smith, Maglio's associate coach in Spokane, took over as head coach of the Chiefs.
