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Cents' finish is money in the bank

After a void of 236 days between home games, the Prince George Spruce Kings finally had a chance to use their dressing room and play in their home rink at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena Sunday afternoon.

After a void of 236 days between home games, the Prince George Spruce Kings finally had a chance to use their dressing room and play in their home rink at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena Sunday afternoon.

With pandemic precautions in place, the Merritt Centennials were in town for a BCHL preseason game and only a couple dozen mask-wearing team staff and media were there to witness it. The Cents spoiled the homecoming for the Spruce Kings, scoring two power-play goals, including Ben Ward’s game-winning tip-in with 3.4 seconds left that cinched a 2-1 victory.

That was especially pleasing to the eye of Cents centreman Alex Ochitwa, who watched from the bench as Ward got his stick on Talon Zakall’s point shot for the winner, with Kings forward Rowan Miller serving a bench penalty for too many men on the ice.

Ochitwa, an 18-year-old Prince George minor hockey product who led the Cariboo Cougars major midgets in scoring last year, couldn’t have asked for a better ending to his first trip back to his hometown since joining the Cents as a rookie this season.  

“It was pretty cool to come back home and get our first win in the exhibition,” said Ochitwa. “We came together in the third and it was a great effort by everybody on our club. It’s awesome to see everybody doing what they can to contribute.”

Ochitwa totaled 23 goals and 54 points in 30 games with his midget team last season and the five-foot-seven, 160-pound pivot came within a sliver of opening the scoring early in the second period Sunday, when his shot from the left wing beat Kings goalie Aaron Trotter but not the goalpost.

“I just walked over the blueline and tried to get a shot off right away and he might not have seen it, too bad that didn’t go in for me,” he said. “It’s a huge jump to this league and I don’t expect to come in and have high offensive numbers right away but hopefully I can contribute here and there and start developing into a scorer in this league as well.”

After a tight-checking opening 20 that produced no great scoring chances for either team, the teams came out hitting to start the second period and the play opened up at either end. Merritt defenceman Grayson Valente, a summer acquisition from the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, took the puck in deep down the left side and ripped a high wrister into the top corner to open the scoring with his first of the preseason.

The Kings pulled even late in the period as a result of some aggressive work along the goal line from Dawson Lakoduk and Corey Cunningham. Cunningham spotted Andrew Seaman at the top of the circle and fed him a pass which Seaman deposited into the net with a low snapper. It was the second goal of the preseason for the 20-year-old native of Winnetka, Ill., a Union College recruit for 2021.

Lakoduk had one of the best chances to give the Kings a lead midway through the third period when he and Miller broke in on a 2-on-1 but the shot from Lakoduk just missed the net and went wide. The Kings ended up outshooting Merritt 25-17. Goalie Colton Phillips-Watts of Quesnel, a teammate of Ochitwa’s briefly last season before he moved on to the Kootenay Ice major midgets, earned his first BCHL preseason win.

“It was tough, it’s our third game and maybe we weren’t as sharp as we needed to be,” said the 20-year-old Lakoduk, a third-year veteran of the league acquired in a futures trade from the Penticton Vees over the summer. “But things happen and we just need to bounce back the next time we play them. Merritt’s always been a physical team and I think we need to keep up with that and bounce back with them. Sometimes we’re going to have to make hits and take hits to make plays.”

The Kings opened the weekend in Merritt with 6-2 win on Friday. Sunday’s win improved Merritt to 1-2 in preseason play while the Spruce Kings dropped to 2-1.

“It was a pretty tight game, I think both teams defended pretty well and there were a few hiccups but overall our guys continued to buy into chipping pucks to an area that we can get them and letting the forecheck dictate things,” said Cents head coach Derek Sweet-Coulter, who still has 30 players in camp. “Our heavy guys I think were able to wear them down a bit there in the third period and we were able to generate some shifts back-to-back and get it rolling where we were constantly in their end and you could see the momentum coming off that.”

LOOSE PUCKS: The Spruce Kings won’t play again until Nov. 7, when they host Merritt at Rolling Mix for their fourth game of the exhibition season against the Cents. Prince George will visit Cranbrook, the home of the expansion Bucks, for back-to-back games Nov. 13-14, continuing on to Trail to play the Smoke Eaters on Nov. 15… Ten games into the preseason, the Vees suffered their first defeat Saturday night in Salmon Arm, where they lost 4-2 to the Silverbacks. Penticton (9-1-0-0) is part of a four-team cohort with Salmon Arm, Vernon and West Kelowna. Penticton has been picked to host the 2021 Centennial Cup junior A national championship… Centre Blake Astorino, a 19-year-old from Prince George, was also in the Cents’ lineup for Sunday’s game. Astorino played the past two seasons in the KIJHL with the Osoyoos Coyotes.

 

Sunday’s BCHL preseason summary

Centennials 2 at Spruce Kings 1

First Period

No scoring.

Penalties- Dewitt ME (hooking) 6:21, Olson ME (blow to the head, misconduct) 8:36, Waite PG (cross-checking), 14:03, Ward ME (goaltender interference), Marlow ME (misconduct), Buono PG (misconduct) 14:43.

Second Period

1. Merritt, Valente 1 (Astorino, Dallazanna) 4:07 (pp)

2. Prince George, Seaman 2 (Cunningham, Lakoduk) 17:23

Penalties – Rheaume PG (interference) 2:23, Lakoduk PG (hooking) 5:02, Olson MR (charging) 6:46, Seaman PG (hooking) 10:56, Miller PG (tripping) 12:25.

Third Period

3. Merritt, Ward 1 (Zakall, Valente) 19:56 (pp)

Penalties – Gabruch PG (misconduct) 1:09, Erichuk ME (cross-checking) 2:51, PG bench (too many men, served by Miller) 19:28.

Shots on goal by

Merritt                 5              5              7              -17

Prince George   9              8              -25

Goal – Merritt, Phillips-Watts (W,1-0, 25-23); Prince George, Trotter (L,1-1, 17-15).

Power plays – ME: 1-4; PG: 0-4.

Referees – Caden Fanshaw, Anthony Maletta; Linesmen -  Tyler Garden, Rob Connolly.