Just when the Prince George Spruce Kings looked like they had gotten themselves into trouble by taking too many trips to the penalty box, they turned the tide on the Powell River Kings on Tuesday night in Powell River.
In a wild Game 4 of the B.C. Hockey League's Island/Mainland Division playoff final, the Spruce Kings gave up three consecutive power-play goals in the second period but answered back with three markers of their own on the way to a 5-4 win.
With the result, the Spruce Kings moved into a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. They can eliminate Powell River with a victory on Thursday (7 p.m. start) at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
On Tuesday, Prince George had a 2-0 lead after the first period on goals by Blake Hayward and Nolan Welsh.
In the eventful second, Powell River jumped into a 3-2 advantage on consecutive power-play goals by Carmine Buono, Neal Samanski and Ben Berard. The Berard goal, at the 11:38 mark, came after Prince George was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for complaining about a perceived missed call on Ben Brar, who appeared to have been the victim of a trip.
Now down a goal, the Spruce Kings responded at 16:20 with a great individual effort by Welsh, who scored his second of the game and third of the playoffs when he bulled his way into the Powell River zone and beat goaltender Matteo Paler-Chow with his shot.
Before the period was done, the Spruce Kings took a 4-3 lead when defenceman Layton Ahac accepted a feed from Brar and scored between the legs of Paler-Chow.
Early in the third period, Prince George extended its lead to 5-3 on a power-play deflection by Dustin Manz, who got his stick on a shot by Ahac.
Powell River was awarded its seventh power play of the game at 16:41 of the final frame when, mysteriously, Spencer Chapman was handed a diving penalty after getting hit from behind into the boards. A dizzy Chapman was forced to the dressing room and Powell River pulled Paler-Chow for a six-on-four man-advantage situation. Powell River's Kevin Obssuth scored quickly but the home team wasn't able to get any more pucks past a sharp Evan DeBrouwer, who made several key stops in the third, and particularly in the last couple minutes.
Powell River went 4-for-7 on the power play and Prince George was 1-for-2. The Kings outshot the Spruce Kings 37-26.
Prince George won the first two games of the series, 2-1 and 5-1 this past Friday and Saturday at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. Powell River prevailed 3-2 in double overtime in Game 3, played Monday night in the coastal community.
In the other league semifinal, the Wenatchee Wild have a 3-0 lead over the Trail Smoke Eaters.
