The Prince George Spruce Kings got an early Christmas present and his name is Luc Laylin.
The 19-year-old American-born centre joined the Spruce Kings earlier this week from the USHL Lincoln Stars in time to hop on the bus to Salmon Arm and his impact in making his new team better against one of the top teams in the B.C. Hockey League was immediate.
Laylin was set up the slot by defenceman Colton Cameron and he snapped the puck in for his first BCHL goal to open the scoring 33 seconds into the second period Saturday. The Kings put four more pucks into the Salmon Arm Silverbacks net for a 5-0 road victory.
”Actually, all three of our new guys played well tonight,” said Spruce Kings head coach Alex Evin. “It was a good team win. We played solid defensively we played good on the transition and our goalscorers scored some goals.”
The game was the first in a Spruce Kings uniform for centre Logan Lorenz and defenceman James Bohn, both 19, who were acquired early this week in separate trades.
Laylin, who turn 20 on Dec. 30, was recommended to the Spruce Kings by Calgary Flames scout Mike Craig, who watched him develop as a high school player in Minnesota. He captained his high school team for two seasons in St. Michael, Minn., before he caught on with the Minnesota Magicians of the NAHL. The St. Thomas University recruit for 2022 had 22 goals and 38 points in 48 games with the Magicians in 2020-21. In 14 USHL games this year with Lincoln he had four points.
“He’s obviously got some really good skill but he’s also a kid that competes hard too,” said Evin. “We were patient and it worked out and hopefully he’s going to be happy here.”
John Herrington of Hudson’s Hope scored his team-leading 11th and 12th goals of the season and also assisted on Kolton Cousins’ goal 6:41 into the second which made it a 2-0 game. Herrington’s first of the game was scored on a Kings’ power play early in the third period. Simon Labelle also scored.
Cousins earned first-star honours playing on a line with Herrington and Laylin.
The Kings outshot the Silverbacks 35-18.
Jordan Fairlie made 18 saves for his first shutout of the season and third in 13 games in his BCHL career. The 19-year-old from Fort St. John improved his record to 4-2. He now sports a 1.84 goals-against average and .908 save percentage.
The win upped the Kings’ record to 10-7-0-0-0. They remain fourth in the Interior Conference, 11 points back of the second-place Silverbacks (16-4-1-0-0) who have played two more games than Prince George.
“We didn’t really give up much, they’re obviously a very talented offensive team and our defencemen played really well,” said Evin. “They took their time and skates away and had really good sticks and Jordie had some timely saves. He’s been working really hard in practice and always has a positive attitude and the guys were playing for him tonight.”
The Kings took advantage of a few extra days off in the wake of the flooding in southern B.C. which cancelled a couple home games and Evin said the break came at a good time for his team, allowing them some needed rest after a stretch of playing nine games in 18 days. Forward Lindon Makow returned from a broken collarbone in the team’s 5-1 loss on home ice Wednesday to Penticton and now they’ll have the services of winger Austin Fraser, who served the third game of a three-game suspension Saturday.
The Kings host the expansion Cranbrook Bucks in their first-ever games at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. The Bucks play in Prince George Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
