The end is in sight for the road-weary Prince George Spruce Kings.
After more than seven days living out of their suitcases and whatever they could cram into the team bus, the Kings continued the longest B.C. Hockey League regular-season trip in team history Monday night in Wenatchee, Wash., where they lost 2-1 to the Wenatchee Wild.
Nick Cafarelli opened the scoring for Wenatchee 6:45 into the game, cashing in a rebound with the Wild on a power play. Matt Dorsey added to the lead 2:20 into the third period. Dorsey let go a shot from the top of the face-off circle after a face-off win in the Prince George end.
The Spruce Kings made it 2-1 not long after that. Seconds after Kings centre Ryan McAllister just missed from the crease the puck came back to the point for Evan Orr and he blasted it in for his fourth of the season.
The Wild dominated the shots, putting 33 pucks on 18-year-old goalie Carter Woodside, who looked sharp while making his first start since signing last week with the Kings. Daniel Chenard, who joined the Wild over the summer in a trade from Chilliwack, made 19 saves.
Woodside made two great stops down the stretch on odd-man rushes late in the third period, denying Wild shooters Brett Chorske and Cafarelli after let go labeled drives up on cross-ice feeds. The Kings got Woodside to the bench and came close to tying it with about five seconds left but a point shot from Nick Bochen whistled just wide.
With the win, the Wild (14-11-3-1) moved two points ahead of Vernon into fourth place in the Interior Division. The Kings (10-15-2-3) remained fourth in the Mainland Division, one point back of third-place Langley. They’re now 1-3-0-0 since they left Prince George.
The Kings boarded the bus for Kelowna after the game and will play the Interior Division-leading Vees (21-7-1-0) in Penticton on Wednesday. That will conclude the Kings’ five-game, 10-day trip.
