Even without their two best defencemen, the Prince George Spruce Kings managed to buckle down and re-enter the win column.
Second period goals from Linden Makow and Luke Eurig paced the Spruce Kings to a hard-fought 3-1 on Friday against the Victoria Grizzlies in front of 670 fans at the Kopar Memorial Arena.
After trailing 1-0 at the end of 20 minutes, the Spruce Kings established their dominance against the Grizzlies and their young netminder Olivier Auyeung-Ashton.
A point blast by rookie blueliner Luke Schraeder ended up on the blade of Eurig who swept home the rebound to make it 1-1.
Nearly seven minutes later, the Spruce Kings would strike again via a late power-play as Makow accepted a corner feed from Jack Stockfish to put the home side in the driver’s seat.
In the third, Victoria attempted to expose the glove hand of PG netminder Jordan Fairlie but to no avail. Fairlie made 27 saves in the win while Auyeung-Ashton turned aside 33 of 25 shots on goal.
With the Grizzlies net empty, former Alberni Valley Bulldog Kai Greaves lifted a slow roller from inside his own blueline and into the empty cage to make it 3-1.
PG went 1-for-3 on the power-play while Victoria was 0-for-2.
With the win, the Spruce Kings improve to 4-1-0-0 on the season while the Grizzlies drop to 1-3-0-1.
PG was without the services of their captain and fellow blueliner Colton Cameron due to a one-game suspension dating back to last Saturday against Vernon. In addition, Ahman Bhabra was also out of the lineup due to injury.
The Merritt Centennials hit the northern capital tonight to play the Spruce Kings at 7pm from the Kopar Memorial Arena.
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