Hard worked finally paid off for Travis Schneider.
Despite having three points in his first seven games the South Palm Beach, Florida product drove to the net knocking home a Ben Poisson feed to propel the Prince George Spruce Kings to a 6-4 win over the Trail Smoke Eaters on Thursday.
Schneider says he couldn’t have been more pleased to finally get his 1st career BCHL goal behind him.
“It feels good a lot weight off the shoulders the team played a solid game and I could not have done it without my teammates it was solid shift by our line that forced the puck into the back of the net.”
After getting outscored 23-6 by Wenatchee in three games at home the Spruce Kings have scored 15 goals in 3 games winning two of them and playing some of their best of hockey of the season in the process.
Schneider believes the sweep against the Wild served as a wake up call. “I think we just tightened up as a group we understand that individual play is unacceptable and when we started to play as a team things started to happen, were playing the system more and the puck has found the back of the net and we can play with any team.”
Prince George opened the scoring at 15:46 of the first period when Ben Poisson swept home a Brett Mennear pass for a 1-0 lead.
Kale Howarth would even up the score before the end of the period thanks to an end to rush on the power-play for a 1-1 tie after 20 minutes.
Two defensive breakdowns in the second period led to a pair of goals from Trail courtesy of Smithers product Luke Santerno and Joshua Laframboise while Jamie Huber replied for the Spruce Kings who trailed 3-2 after the middle frame.
Prince George enjoyed a four goal explosion in the third period starting off with two unanswered from Kyle Johnson and Jerrod Hovde.
Ryan Murphy replied back for the Smoke Eaters to make it 4-4 less than 5 minutes into the third.
The game took some twists and turns as the Spruce Kings killed off a double minor butt ending penalty to Tanner Campbell.
Spruce Kings stayed in front for good thanks to a misplay by Trail goaltender Zach Dyment went straight to the stick of Ben Poisson who found Schneider for the eventual game-winner.
Brett Mennear added the final marker on the power-play after deflecting home a point shot on the power-play from Sam DeMelo.
Spruce Kings Head Coach, Chad Van Diemen believes the way they came out in the third period made all the difference.
“I thought our start was fantastic, we juggled up some lines at little bit and were able to get the two goals back to back, we gave one back but had a a huge kill which was great all night and happy to get the end result.”
Spruce Kings welcome the Cowcihan Valley Capitals on Friday at 7PM from the RMCA and Van Diemen says a couple of new faces will be in the lineup.
“Tyler Anderson will be a welcome addition on the backend, Tavin Grant will start in net on Friday and we’re excited, he just got back from the Cougars and throw him in their. I think he’s itching to get going.”
Prince George outshot Trail 44-30 and went 2 for 4 on the power-play.
BCHL Scoreboard
Surrey Eagles 8 Chilliwack Chiefs 2