With the game on the line, Nolan Welsh took the Prince George Spruce Kings on his shoulders and delivered one of the biggest wins of their B.C. Hockey League season Wednesday night in Penticton.
The 20-year-old Kings captain used his baseball skills to swat down a bouncing puck in the crease and score the gamewinner in what turned out a 5-3 victory over the Penticton Vees.
Fin Williams, in his first game since suffering a leg injury Oct. 12, backhanded the puck at the feet of Vees goalie Carl Stankowski and with three Vees defenders standing near the goalmouth, Colton Cameron chopped at the loose puck Welsh got his stick on the high rebound.
"It was a good play off the rush by Fin and a good job by Cameron to get to the net and it hit the goalie's stick and bounced up and I just poked at the puck in the air and it ended up going over the goalie and in," said Welsh.
The Vees pulled Stankowski for the extra skater but couldn’t get set up in the Kings’ zone and Welsh ended the suspense with an empty-netter at 18:41, his 10th goal of the season in front of a crowd of 2,951.
The Spruce Kings improved to 11-15-2-3-0 and moved one point ahead of Langley into third place in the Mainland Division. They finished their five-game, 10-day roadtrip with two wins and three losses. The Interior Division-leading Vees dropped to 21-8-1-0-0.
Jett Alexander continued to supply superb goaltending for the Kings, playing in his 28th game this season since coming west to the BCHL from the Ontario Junior Hockey League. He came up with a glove save in the dying second of the second period to deny a slot shot from Liam Malmquist.
Alexander made 31 saves as the game’s first star. The Kings were outshot 34-21.
"It was a pretty even game and our goalie played really good and we got some good bounces and beat one of the top teams in Penticton and I'm just hoping we can keep that going into Sunday an the rest of the season," said Welsh.
"We just stuck to our gameplan and played how we wanted to play and I thought we were the better team and it was nice to get a win. We've been away from home for awhile and we're really looking forward to getting back. We had a really good start to the roadtrip and maybe some tough games in the middle and it's nice to end on a note like this."
The Vees battled back from two-goal deficit with goals 64 seconds apart early in the third period. Ryan McAllister had just given the Kings a 3-1 lead when he batted in a behind the-net centring pass from Wil Kushniryk with just 1:32 gone in the period.
Twenty-six seconds later, Colton Kalezic spun a backhand pass to Tyler Ho just outside the crease and he redirected the pass through the legs of Alexander. Vees captain David Silye tied it up at 3:02, a shot form the slot set up by Lucas Sillinger.
The Kings grabbed the early lead 4:11 into the game. Thomas Richter raced across the blueline to hold the puck in the Vees’ end and that set up a bout of sustained pressure that ended with centre Carter Cochrane scoring his second of the season. He got his stick on Nick Bochen’s shot from the point and the puck hit the skate of Vees defenceman Carson Kosobud and slid into the net.
Penticton tied it seven minutes into the second period on a tapped-in backhander from Danny Weight, fed through crease on a pass from defenceman Evan McIntyre. Prince George made it a 2-1 count 14:37 into the second period. Richter stole the puck from Jay O’Brien and let go a shot from the right side and the rebound bounced to Kushniryk and the former Tri-City American left winger scored, his first point since joining the Spruce Kings a month ago from the WHL. Kushniryk played the left side on a line with McAllister and Richter and that trio gave the Vees plenty of trouble.
LOOSE PUCKS: Williams wasn’t credited on the scoresheet with the assist on Welsh’s first goal but that will stand as his 16th point in 14 games. He and Poisson will be in Calgary this weekend to attend the Canada West tryouts for the World Junior A Hockey Challenge in Dawson Creek… The Spruce Kings were without one of their top forwards, Chong Min Le, who remains sidelined with a shoulder injury. The Vees were missing forward Jack Barnes (suspended) and two of their top defencemen, Ethan Martini and Cade Webber, who are both injured. The six-foot-seven, 208-pound Webber was picked by the Carolina Hurricanes in the fourth round (99th overall) in the 2019 NHL draft... Williams, a 16-year-old rookie from North Vancouver, centred a line with Welsh and Nick Poisson. The Spruce Kings return to Rolling Mix Concrete Arena for their next game Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m., when they face the Powell River Kings. Prince George then hosts the Chilliwack Chiefs next Thursday and Friday.
