One goal was enough for the Salmon Arm Silverbacks as they staved off the Prince George Spruce Kings 1-0 on Saturday in front of 763 fans at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
A slap shot by Hunter Sansbury proved to be the difference maker catching an outstretched Jett Alexander on the power-play early in the second period.
The sizeable defence of the Silverbacks caused problems for the Spruce Kings limiting them to just 20 shots against and collapsing around goaltender Ethan Langenegger to help secure his first career BCHL shutout.
“I think we need more shots and hold on to the puck as much as we can and I think we need that in our own barn because teams don’t like coming in here and we need to take advantage of that.” said Preston Brodziak, Spruce Kings forward to MyPGNow.com after the game.
Salmon Arm had three defenceman dressed that were six-feet-five-inches tall or bigger including Kieran Ruscheinski, Zach Gabruch and Noah Lugli.
Even with the size mismatch, Brodziak believes the Spruce Kings could have exploited the blueliners a bit better.
“I think it should be easier for us to play against them honestly, we try to be a fast team and I think we need to be able to beat those guys and take advantage of them because sometimes they are a bit slower and we should get the puck past them so we can generate offense.”
Not to be outdone, Alexander put up arguably his best outing as a Spruce Kings making 29 saves in defeat.
The 20-year-old’s best stop was an acrobatic stick save on Silverbacks forward Nick Martino.
“It hit my blocker and I made kind of a tough read but I bit on the shot and he made a pass so honestly, I was kind of upset with myself and got lucky since he had three and a half feet of net above that.”
“We battled hard to the end but we couldn’t get anything going and then the refs call a penalty with 40 seconds left on a questionable call that really takes everything away from what we did in the last 20.”
Prince George drops to 4-6-2-1 on the season, remaining fourth in the Mainland Division nine points back of the Coquitlam Express who are 10-2-0-0.
Furthermore, the Spruce Kings are 2-4-2-1 at the RMCA this season after going a combined 45-11-1 the last two regular seasons on home ice.
The hill could get even steeper to climb as Prince George was without Chong Min Lee who could miss the next two weeks due to a possible concussion he sustained on Friday against the Nanaimo Clippers after an open ice hit by Travis Walton.
Walton received a two-game suspension by the league brass.
Fin Williams also left Saturday’s game against the Silverbacks after a collision early in the third period that saw his leg get tied up with one of the Salmon Arm players before crashing hard into the boards.
He was taken to the hospital where his playing status remains uncertain.
Prince George is also without Nolan Welsh, Nick Bochen, and Cole Leal due to other injuries.
Alexander believes the time is now for him and the rest of the young core to step up and capitalize.
“Hopefully Fin is ok, you hate to see a guy go out like that and we got guys playing with half a leg while other guys are playing when they really shouldn’t have to push through it at this point in the year. We’re battling as hard as we can and the young guys need to seize the opportunity here missing big guys out of the lineup, we need a little bit more from everyone.”
With the win, Salmon Arm improves to 10-2-0-1 on the season just one point back of the Penticton Vees for the Interior Division crown.
Langenegger believes the team’s new core of players are starting to flourish.
“I think we did a really good job recruiting this year as we’ve got some guys that fit out game
plan well and we’re a pretty inexperienced group but we’ve been able to gel early and mature our game of the course of the season and we’re trying to build off that.”
The Spruce Kings wrap up a four-game home stand against their arch-rivals the Chilliwack Chiefs (8-5-1-1) next Friday and Saturday at 7pm from the RMCA.
The first half of the doubleheader will be Prince George’s Breast Cancer Awareness Night.
Another Saturday night, another full slate of games! Spoiler Alert: There are no more undefeated teams in the league.
Check out the highlights in #BCHLin60 presented by @ChevroletCanada! pic.twitter.com/YJhJ9ULusA
— BC Hockey League (@GoBCHL) October 13, 2019