The Prince George Spruce Kings keep putting points in the bank.
A 5-0 victory over the Cranbrook Bucks Saturday vaulted the Kings (15-9-2-1-0, .611 winning percentage) back into fourth place in the BCHL's Interior Conference.
Aaron Trotter made 36 saves for his first shutout of the season in front of 1,963 witnesses at Western Financial Place in Cranbrook. The Kings were outshot 36-32.
Ty Gagno, the game’s first star, opened the scoring on a Prince George power play 9:41 in, and four minutes later set up Kilian McGregor-Bennett to make it a 2-0 game.
Rowan Miller stretched the led to 3-0 early in the second period with his 12th of the season and Luc Laylin collected his third of the season late in the period. Laylin picked up his second assist of the night on another Kings’ power play when Kolton Cousins capped the scoring in the third period.
The Kings went 2-for-5 on the power play and their penalty-killers blanked the Bucks in their three chances.
The Spruce Kings lost 1-0 to the Bucks in overtime Friday. Prince George has won three of the five games in the season series with Cranbrook and also picked up points for two overtime losses to the Bucks. The Bucks’ fifth-place record dropped to 16-11-2-0-0and they now sport a .586 winning percentage.
Coming out of the Christmas break, the Kings have gained six out of a possible eight points in four games.
The Kings boarded the bus after the game Saturday for the 825-kilometre trek back to Prince George, where they’ll take on the West Kelowna Warriors Wednesday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. That will be the start of a three-game homestand in which the Kings host Merritt on Saturday and Penticton the following Wednesday.
