The Prince George Spruce Kings experienced a power outage at the worst possible time.
On Thursday, the man advantage went an abysmal 1-for-8 in a 3-2 loss to the Chilliwack Chiefs in front of 703 fans at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
The defending Fred Page and Doyle Cup Champs squandered their last five opportunities as they were unable to crack the equalizer from Chiefs goaltender Mathieu Caron.
Kyle Penney opened the scoring 30 seconds into the game as his turn away slapshot beat an unsuspecting Jett Alexander giving Chilliwack a 1-0 advantage.
The lone bright spot on the Spruce Kings power-play came late in the period as Mason Waite ripped a one-time shot off a cross-ice feed from Nick Bochen past Caron to even the score.
Prince George then held the lead for the only time 49 seconds into the middle period when Carter Cochrane drove the goal beating Caron for a 2-1 score.
Chilliwack didn’t stay down for long, scoring on a power-play of their own courtesy of a Joey Larson whose snapshot handcuffed Alexander stick side.
Nikita Nesterenko then sliced and diced his way around the Prince George defence finishing off with a wraparound try, ending Alexander’s night allowing three goals on 12 shots.
“We got away from our game plan a little bit and it cost us two goals and we weren’t able to claw our way back in the third,” said Waite.
Backup Carter Woodside didn’t need long to get a feel for the game making a highlight reel pad save on a 2-on-oh breakaway led by Davis Murray.
Woodside continued to give his team a chance making a few more acrobatic stops even though the Spruce Kings squandered their last five power-plays including a 6-on-4 late in the third period.
“I went out there and tried to keep the team in it and take it shot by shot. We need to stick our structure and play our brand of hockey if we want to win tomorrow (Friday) by using our speed and keeping our d-zone clean.”
The loss drops PG to 11-17-2-3, which ranks last in the Mainland Division while the Chiefs improve to 15-9-4-2, nine points up on the Spruce Kings for second place.
It also marks the 11th time the Spruce Kings have lost by one goal this season, which leads the BCHL.
“We have to have each other’s backs as teammates so that we can keep positive in the room and just make each other better everyday at practice and support everyone on the bench will make things a lot easier,” added Waite.
The game also marked the first appearance back for 16-year-old Spruce Kings forward Fin Williams after returning from the Team Canada West evaluation camp.
His teammate Nick Poisson is on the roster who begins play on Saturday when Team Canada West faces off against the United States.
The tournament is being held at the Encana Events Centre in Dawson Creek.
Both teams are back at it tonight (Friday) at 7:00 pm from the RMCA.