At the end of the day, the Prince George Spruce Kings couldn’t solve Logan Terness.
Facing a 3-0 deficit in their best-of-seven first round quarter-final series against the Trail Smoke Eaters, the defending Fred Page and Doyle Cup Champs saw their time atop the BCHL come to an end on Tuesday dropping a 3-1 decision before 862 fans at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
Corey Cunningham potted the ice-breaker for Prince George on the power-play at 17:42 of the first period, slipping a wrist shot past Terness for a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.
The Spruce Kings held the slim advantage until late in the second period where a Fin Williams hooking penalty proved costly as Phillippe Lapointe kick-started the Smoke Eater offence with a hot wrist-shot past the glove hand of goaltender Carter Woodside.
“We weren’t generating a lot of shots on the power-play so the coach was preaching a shot first mentality and we were trying to get our looks and I got a sweet pass from DiMurro (Diarmad) and I was able to pick my spot and luckily it went in,” said Lapointe.
.@Plapointe22 of @BCHLSmokeEaters chats with @mypgnow after completing 1st round sweep of @SpruceKings in @GoBCHL playoffs following 3-1 Tuesday #CityofPG #sports #BleedOrange #GoSmokiesGo #WeAreSmokeEaters pic.twitter.com/Ibs0WunI7k
— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) March 4, 2020
Trail carried the momentum into the third where former WHL’er Jamieson Murray scored his first of two in the game past Woodside, giving the Smoke Eaters the lead.
Murray rifled his next goal into an empty net sending Trail to round two of the postseason.
Terness was named the game’s second star after stopping 24 Spruce King shots and completed the series with a sparkling 0.73 goals-against average and a .970 save percentage.
Lapointe had nothing but praise for the 17-year-old.
“He’s been our rock all playoffs and all season long, he’s the backbone of our d-core and when he is in net we are confident we can win every night.”
The Game 4 loss is a tough pill to swallow for the Spruce Kings who now look to next season to get back on track.
Head Coach Alex Evin told MyPGNow.com post-game the effort from the players was there despite coming up short.
“It’s tough, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort, the guys gave it everything they had this series and they held Trail to very few goals as they are a high-scoring team. I thought we did a pretty good job shutting them down, it’s just unfortunate that we couldn’t find more offence.”
It was an eventful Tuesday night around the #BCHLPlayoffs, including two eliminations and two wild overtime finishes.
Watch some of the highlights in #BCHLin60 presented by @ChevroletCanada! pic.twitter.com/L0h3CipV3F
— BC Hockey League (@GoBCHL) March 4, 2020
Prince George was outshot 31-25 overall and could only muster up three shots towards Terness in the final period.
Evin stated the Smoke Eaters commitment to defence had a lot to do with it.
“It was a tight series, give them credit their goalie made the saves when he needed to make them, their defense did a really good job of keeping us to the outside and they got timely goals from their top guys and that’s what was the difference in the playoff series.”
Spruce Kings forward Kolton Cousins is crushed not to be moving on as he along with teammate Preston Brodziak were on last year’s Cowichan Valley Capitals team that upset the top-seeded Penticton Vees.
He believes PG could have easily been ahead or on even terms with Trail had they gotten a little more puck luck.
“They have a great hockey club over there and I think we do too and it could have gone any other way had we gotten a couple of bounces, basically every game was 1-1 or 1-0 heading into the third so it was super-tough but if we got a couple more bounces our way we would have had a better outcome.”
.@SpruceKings forward @KoltonCousins chats with with @mypgnow after 3-1 loss to @BCHLSmokeEaters in @GoBCHL action on Tuesday #CityofPG #sports #BeatTheOdds #GetInTheMix #BCHLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/I6yBZrcw3W
— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) March 4, 2020
On the other hand, the first-round sweep is a humbling experience for Cunningham who has enjoyed the highest of the highs with the Spruce Kings.
He was part of the team that went to the league final in 2018 losing in five games to the Wenatchee Wild
Cunningham then helped the Spruce Kings claim their first Fred Page Cup and Doyle Cup crowns last year before losing the final game of the National Junior A Championship to the Brooks Bandits who were the host team.
The 18-year-old local product believes the early exit will make him more hungry to get back to the top next season.
“It’s definitely different having a summer in March instead of April or May, it’s just a little disappointing though we couldn’t have done it all again this year. I know what winning feels like and now I know what losing feels like, we won last year and the year before that we lost in the finals and this year we got swept so it’s just a different experience.”
“We just need to keep building,” added Cunningham.
Cunningham led the Spruce Kings in goals with 26 during the regular season but was stymied to just one during this year’s playoffs.
The defeat marked the final Junior A game for Brodziak, Nolan Welsh, Jarin Sutton, and Jett Alexander.
Michael Colella of @BCHLSmokeEaters talks with @mypgnow post game after 3-1 win over @SpruceKings to complete first round sweep ? in @GoBCHL playoff action #CityofPG #sports #WeAreSmokeEaters #GoSmokiesGo #BleedOrange #BCHL pic.twitter.com/NRoR26COWt
— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) March 4, 2020
The results of the series are as follows:
Game 1 – Friday, February 28th – Prince George @ Trail – Trail won 2-1
Game 2 – Saturday, February 29th – Prince George @ Trail – Trail won 2-1 (OT)
Game 3 – Monday, March 2nd – Trail @ Prince George – Trail won 4-0
Game 4 – Tuesday, March 3rd – Trail @ Prince George – Trail won 3-1
The BCHL Playoff Tracker is right here.