The B.C. Hockey League playoffs are only three weekends away and the Prince George Spruce Kings are heating up the postseason irons.
They cranked up the heat Thursday with a 5-2 win over the visiting West Kelowna Warriors, spoiling the homecoming party of Warriors' head coach Brandon West.
Ben Brar's first career hat trick led the Kings to their season-high ninth-straight victory and moved the Kings (36-12-15) to within five points of the league-leading Chilliwack Chiefs in the overall standings.
Ben Poisson and Jay Keranen also scored for the Spruce Kings. Lucas Cullen and former Cariboo Cougar Chase Dubois responded for the Warriors (27-26-0-1).
"It definitely felt pretty good out there, (Dustin) Manz and (Patrick) Cozzi played a big part setting me up for those," said Brar. "We wanted to come out and play strong and good things happened.
"We kind of got embarrassed the last time we played these guys (a 6-1 loss in West Kelowna Jan. 20) and we took it to them. They came up the day of the game and we knew that and just tried to jump on them early."
The Warriors spent five days on Vancouver Island after getting caught in the big snowstorm down there and were late arriving in Prince George.
"I thought (the Kings) played an outstanding game and they pushed us on our heels right off the start," said West, who was born and raised in Prince George. "We played well in spurts but obviously not well enough to generate some offence. They are obviously on a roll right now and we weren't able to get anything in the second period and that was difference in the game."
The Kings took an early lead and Brar did the damage, scoring his 30th of the season at the 5:40 mark of the first period with a nice individual move out of the corner before lifting a high shot in behind goalie Connor Hopkins.
The Warriors tied it with a bit of a strange one, 6:09 into the second period. Logan Neaton took a hard shot from Garrett Ewert off his shoulder and the puck bounced high into the air and came down in a crowd of bodies gathered around the crease. Lucas Cullen took a whack at the fluttering puck that bounced off the ice and connected for his 24th goal of the season.
The Kings responded shortly after. Brar, a Merrimack College recruit for next season, scored his second of the night, finishing off a perfect cross-ice feed from linemate Manz with a wicked high shot from the left circle.
Poisson, the Kings' captain, made it a 3-1 game late in the period, firing off a quick wrist shot from the high slot.
Keranen, a stay-at-home defenceman, scored his first goal in 90 games, firing off a shot that hit the knee of Warriors forward Mike Hardman and skipped off the ice before it found the back of the net.
The Warriors cut the gap to 4-2 when they scored eight seconds into the second power play of the game. Neaton had no chance of stopping Dubois' shot from the side of the net.
Brar's hat-trick goal into an empty net was a result of Cozzi's generosity. He took a pass from Max Coyle and had a crack at the empty net but elected to pass to Brar, who finished it off for his team-leading 32nd goal. He's the first Spruce King in two seasons to hit the 30-goal plateau, after a 25-goal season last year.
Neaton made 26 saves to become the first Spruce Kings goalie to ever hit the 30-win mark. The Kings outshot the Warriors 45-28.
The Kings hit the road Saturday for a Sunday afternoon date with the Chiefs, then it's on to Surrey to play the Eagles in a rare Monday matinee on Family Day.
