Spruce Kings close in on BCHL division title
The steam-roller is in motion and it appears there’s no stopping the Prince George Spruce Kings as they continue to pave a path towards their first-ever B.C. Hockey League banner.
They flattened the Coquitlam Express 5-1 Saturday night at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena to complete a two-game weekend sweep of their division rivals and move 11 points ahead of the next closest team in the Mainland Division standings.
That’s how far the Spruce Kings (29-54-4) are ahead of the second-place Surrey Eagles in the race for the regular-season crown. Surrey lost 7-6 Saturday at home to the Langley Rivermen to fall another two points back of the Kings. Coquitlam (14-351-3) remains last in the division.
Prince George has six games left in the regular season while Surrey and Langley each have seven games remaining.
In Saturday’s game, the Express struck first. Joshua Bruce opened the scoring 7:05 into the first period and that lead lasted only about three minutes when Ethan de Jong scored on Brock Hamm for his 17th goal of the season.
It was all Prince George after that. Jarod Hovde and Ben Poisson found the net in the second period to make it 3-1.
In the third period, defenceman Tyson Slater collected his first goal of the season and Blake Hayward caped the scoring late into an empty net.
De Jong also had two assists to move into seventh place in the BCHL scoring race with 60 points in 46 games, eight points behind scoring leader Jasper Weatherby of the Wenatchee Wild.
The shots ended up 30-26 in the Kings’ favour. Evan DeBrouwer made 25 saves to improve his record to 24-13-4. DeBrouwer’s 2.23 goals-against average ranks fourthbest in the league.
The Spruce Kings host the Trail Smoke Eaters Wednesday night at RMCA in their last home game of the regular season.