The Chilliwack Chiefs wasted no time getting to the task at hand when they hosted the Prince George Spruce Kings in B.C. Hockey League action Tuesday night.
Tommy Lyons scored just three minutes into the game and the Chiefs rolled to a 4-1 victory.
Connor Milburn, Arlo Merritt and Nicholas Cherkowski also solved Spruce Kings goalie Carter Woodside, who had a busy night facing 33 shots.
Nolan Welsh was the lone goalscorer for the Kings, who fired 20 shots at the Chiefs' net guarded by Mathieu Caron.
Neither team scored on its power-play chances. The Chiefs went 0-for-4 and the Kings were blanked in their two opportunities.
Prince George (17-30-2-4-0, fifth in Mainland Division) moves on to Surrey for an 11 a.m. game Thursday against the Eagles (23-23-3-4-0, third in Mainland).
From there, the Spruce Kings will fly to Terrace and bus the rest of the way to Kitimat, where they will play the Langley Rivermen in the LNG Canada Road Show. The two-game series happens Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Tamitik Arena in Kitimat.
The Rivermen sit fourth in the Mainland with a 21-28-2-1-1 record.
The Spruce Kings rank 15th out of 17 in the overall standings, three points ahead of the 16th-place West Kelowna Warriors. If the playoffs started today, Prince George would play a crossover opening-round series against the Trail Smoke Eaters, the second-place team in the Interior Division.
* The league announced this week the BCHL Showcase Festival will happen in Salmon Arm. It will feature all 17 teams, which gives pro scouts and hockey fans an opportunity to see all of the league's players. The Showcase, an annual event since 2012, was co-hosted last year in Penticton and Chilliwack.
* Chiefs defenceman Hudson Thornton, a Prince George Cougars' draft pick, was selected the BCHL's high school player of the month for January. The 16-year-old defenceman, a native of Chilliwack, picked up three goals and four assists in seven games last month.
The Minnesota-Duluth University recruit has 15 points in 46 games tis season, tied fir 13th among rookie defencemen. He attends Sardis Secondary School in Chilliwack and is an A-student.
