It was a festive end to the first half of the BCHL Season down at the Kopar Memorial Arena.
A second period line melee along with a 35-save shutout by Charlie Zolin led to a 3-0 victory over the Trail Smoke Eaters on Saturday in front of 1,056 fans.
Vanderhoof’s Linden Makow opened the scoring for the Spruce Kings at 10:21 of the first period, stripping Smoke Eaters blueliner Patrick Reilly of the puck leading to a 2-1 on rush and beating goaltender Teagan Kendrick.
Makow is on a tear offensively with eight points in his last four games.
In the second period, PG got some offense from an unlikely source as Trent Taylor slapped a rebound past a sprawled-out Kendrick after his initial point shot was denied by the Trail goalkeeper.
It was Taylor’s first of the season.
Before intermission, both teams engaged in some fire as Smoke Eaters overage forward Ethan Mann slashed Makow following a shot on goal leading to a dust-up between several players.
Makow dropped the gloves against Trail forward Adam Marshall. Makow received a fighting major as well as a match penalty and a game misconduct after it was determined he pulled Marshall’s hair at the conclusion of the fight.
In addition, Evan Bellamy, Luca Primarano, Kai Greaves and Owen Goodbrand all received ten-minute misconducts for PG while Ethan Warrener, Mann, Cameron Johnson and Mathieu Cobetto-Roy also sat for half a period.
Goodbrand added the insurance marker for the Spruce Kings into an empty Trail net at 19:37 of the third to seal the victory.
The Spruce Kings end the pre-Christmas portion of their BCHL schedule with a 9-15-3-0 record, last in the Interior Conference.
PG dropped a thrilling 8-7 decision at the hands of the Smoke Eaters on Friday during the Drop the Mits and Sock it to Em game in support of St. Vincent de Paul.
The Spruce Kings enjoyed 2-1 and 5-4 leads after the first two periods.
Trail scored four unanswered goals in the third period after PG went ahead 6-4.
Greaves and Skogen Schrott each scored a pair of goals in defeat for the Spruce Kings while Makow, Goodbrand and Kilian McGregor-Bennett added singles.
Cobetto-Roy, Jason Stefanek and Adam Parsons all had two-goal outings for the Smoke Eaters while Gryphon Bucci and Chase Stefanek also lit the lamp.
PG outshot Trail 48-32 and went 3-for-3 on the power-play.
Zolin, in his BCHL debut was pulled in favour of Ryan Sanborn after giving up seven goals on 28 shots. Ryan Parker picked up the win in net for the Smoke Eaters.
The Spruce Kings are off until December 29th and 30th when they host the West Kelowna Warriors (19-6-3-0).
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