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Spruce Kings secondary scoring pulls through in win against Chilliwack

A French connection is starting to develop for the Prince George Spruce Kings.

The duo of Nick Rheaume (two goals) and Simon Labelle (two assists) had a four-point night to give the Spruce Kings a 5-3 victory against the Chilliwack Chiefs on Monday in BCHL action.

“It feels nice to get this one today. We started off really well in the first period, that’s something we haven’t done in a while so it was good to see that. We had a lot of really good players step up and drive the boat for us,” said Rowan Miller.”

Carter Cochrane kicked off the scoring for PG at 18:56 of the opening period beating Chiefs netminder Mathieu Caron for a 1-0 lead at intermission.

The Spruce Kings ran into penalty trouble committing four consecutive infractions.

On one of them, Tanner Andrew scored his first of two handcuffing PG netminder Jordan Fairlie tying it up at 1-1.

With less than three minutes remaining, Rheaume collected his first of two markers at the 17:24 mark with Labelle and Miller assisting.

The goal was initially waived off by the official who was caught out of the position but later reversed the call after taking a peak at the jumbotron.

Rheaume extended the Spruce Kings lead to 3-1 early in the third tucking in a Ben LeFranc pass that caught Caron out of position.

Chilliwack responded a minute later, as Ethan Bowen notched his third of the Pod Season, making it a one-goal game again.

The offensive fireworks continued as Christian Buono chipped a puck out to centre ice, forcing a 2-on-0 shorthanded and nudged the puck to Miller who made no mistake.

“It feels nice to get the monkey off the back. It’s a good play by Buono starting it out, getting it off the defenceman’s stick and I jumped at the opportunity to skate that one up at put it in.”

The Chiefs made it a 4-3 game with less than eight minutes remaining following Andrew’s second of the game.

With an empty-net, Cochrane put the icing on the cake for PG who improved to 4-2 inside the Chilliwack Pod.

“4-2 is pretty good, we obviously want to keep the winning streak going. I think we have been playing the right way, we have been doing the right things building momentum and the players are getting better. There are no bad attitudes or anything like that on this team so with a group like this it’s always fun,” added Miller.

Both teams reacquaint themselves on Thursday at 5pm from the Coliseum.

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Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].

Brendan Pawliw
Brendan Pawliw
Since moving to Prince George in 2015, Brendan has covered local sports including the WHL’s Prince George Cougars, Prince George Spruce Kings, UNBC Timberwolves, Cariboo Cougars AAA, and Northern Capitals U18 female hockey teams. Career highlights include play-by-play during the Spruce Kings' BCHL championship runs in 2018 and 2019, including the Doyle Cup win. He also covered the 2019 National Junior A Championship, the 2017 Telus Cup, the 2022 World Women’s Curling Championship, and the 2022 BC Summer Games. Brendan is the news voice on 94.3 The Goat and Country 97 FM, reporting on crime, real estate, labour, and environmental issues. Outside of work, he officiates box lacrosse and fastball, sits on the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame board, and co-hosts the Hockey North podcast.

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