A picture perfect performance was needed by the Prince George Spruce Kings in order to come away with a victory.
It was anything but on Saturday as the defending Fred Page and Doyle Cup Champs dropped a 3-0 decision at the hands of the Trail Smoke Eaters in front of 805 fans at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
The odds were stacked against the Spruce Kings going into the contest missing four defenceman including Nick Bochen, Cole Leal, Colton Cameron and Evan Orr who were all out due to injury.
That meant playing with two affiliate blueliners from the Cariboo Cougars in Matthew Magrath and Aiden Reeves.
Try as they might, the skill and experience of the Smoke Eaters proved to be a little too much.
Michael Colella opened the scoring for Trail on the power-play late in the first period putting home a blistering slapshot at the top corner past Spruce Kings netminder Jett Alexander for a 1-0 lead.
“The power play was moving the puck well and we wanted to make sure they were confused about what we were going to do and then get shots on net and move the puck around. I thought my first attempt went in but it came back and I saw the defender was screening the goalie so I figured to put it in a nice spot and it happened to go in.”
“He (Alexander) came out, his stick wasn’t in a good place, so I had a bit of room and the glove side was there,” added Colella.
Trail’s one goal advantage would be extended at 16:04 of the second period when a wraparound try by Colby Elmer slid inside the post with the puck crossing the line.
Liam Freeborn iced the victory for the Smoke Eaters in the third connecting on a three-way scoring play with Colella and Owen Ozar.
After getting off to an 0-5-1 start, this is the third consecutive victory for the Smoke Eaters where they have outscored their opponents (West Kelowna, Victoria and Prince George) 14-3 in that span.
Trail defenceman Diarmad DiMurro believes everything is coming into place after a rough beginning.
“It was definitely different for our team, we just had to adjust as we have a lot of new kids on our team, we knew we had the right group we just had to find our groove and work hard and we finally built off a couple of nice wins last weekend.”
Prince George was outshot 26-14, giving Trail goaltender and former Prince Albert Raider and Spokane Chief Donovan Buskey the easy shutout.
However, DiMurro credits the team’s defensive approach in shutting down the Spruce Kings.
“Our defence was really stiff today. We held them to nothing and gave them only 14 shots as they didn’t really get any chances they were able to create and we were really good at breaking the puck out too and forced them to dump pucks in.”
Newly acquired Spruce Kings forward Kolton Cousins wasn’t willing to let his team off the hook for their performance.
“I just don’t think the compete level was there on the walls and we got outworked. I think we have a pretty skilled team here with a lot of potential but I think we have to win our battles and outcompete the other team. The future is bright if we work hard.”
“Trail is a good club but at the same time we have to battle through some adversity, the AP’s did a good job tonight but together as a team we have to be more collective.”
Fin Williams saw his night end in the second period after receiving a checking from behind penalty and a game misconduct.
The Spruce Kings were already without forwards Nolan Welsh and Andrew Seaman who are both hurt.
John Herrington was also called up from the Major Midget Cougars to play up front.
Prince George drops to 3-4-2 on the season, four points back of the Coquitlam Express for the Mainland Division lead.
The Coquitlam Express and Merritt Centennials both managed to pull out overtime wins on another busy Saturday night of BCHL action.
Check out those highlights and more in tonight’s #BCHLin60 presented by @ChevroletCanada! pic.twitter.com/9abMAml9BX
— BC Hockey League (@GoBCHL) September 29, 2019
Next action for the Spruce Kings will be a pair of early starts at the BCHL Showcase in Penticton where they will play the West Kelowna Warriors (1-7-2-0) on Friday at 10am followed by a 1pm puck drop on Saturday against Trail (3-5-1-0) from the South Okanagan Events Centre.