It took a while for the fur to fly Friday night at The Q Centre in Colwood on Teddy Bear Toss Night.
And the visitors spoiled the BC Hockey League stuffy party as the Prince George Spruce Kings (8-13-3) scored a 2-1 victory over the Victoria Grizzlies (14-7-3).
The first period was scoreless with the first goal of the game not coming until the second frame. Unfortunately, for the 742 anxious Grizzlies fans holding their stuffed toys, it was scored by the visitors with Nicolas Papineau getting Prince George on the board at 4:45 - the third goal in three games since Papineau came west from the Nepean (Ont.) Raiders.
BCHL all-star defenceman Skogen Schrott, the game's first star, made it a 2-0 count at 17:37.
The wait finally ended for the home faithful as forward Stone Rolston, son of former NHLer Brian Rolston, scored the Teddy Bear Toss tally at 18:31 of the middle period on the power play for his ninth goal of the season, igniting the throwing of fur over the glass. But that’s as good as it got for the hosts and they could not find another goal on the night.
Colin Reay made 37 saves in goal for Prince George in his first game for the Kings since coming over in a trade from the Vernon Vipers.
It was interim head coach Brad Tesink’s second win in three games since taking over the Prince George bench from Alex Evin.
Oliver Auyeung-Ashton stopped 33 shots for the Grizzlies.
Newly-acquired blue liners Garrett Frazer and Evan Stastny made their Grizzlies debuts on Friday.
The Grizzlies have the rest of the weekend off and then play the Eagles (13-9-3), 4-3 losers Friday to the Powell River Kings, on Tuesday night in Surrey.
Meanwhile, the Cowichan Valley Capitals (13-9-3) continued their rise with a 7-4 victory over the Clippers (9-13-2) in Nanaimo. The Spruce Kings will face the Capitals Saturday (76 p.m.) in Duncan.
