Getting shutout in junior hockey isn’t exactly an uncommon occurrence.
However, when it happens in a playoff game, it stings a little more.
That was the fate of the Prince George Spruce Kings on Friday night as they fell 2-0 at the hands of the Langley Rivermen thanks to a stellar 36-save performance by Eric Young.
The 20-year-old saved his best for last as the Spruce Kings, who had a six-on-three advantage in the dying minutes, couldn’t buy a goal. Young sprawled out and got a piece of the puck off a chaotic sequence in front of the visitor goal.
Young, who is no stranger to the BCHL having suited up for the Okotoks Oilers and Coquitlam Express prior to this, frustrated Spruce King shooters all night with his calm demeanor, slick glove hand and near-perfect positioning.
“It was a great effort from everyone. Being the fourth seed, Prince George is a really good team and you know that they are going to bring their “A” game, but I am glad we showed up.”
“I’m not really sure (how I made the save), I will have to look at it after. It was tough being six-on-three in playoff hockey but it’s something you have to do. It doesn’t matter what the odds are, we did a good job killing there.”
After a scoreless first, Langley drew first blood at 2:52 of the middle frame as Makaio Van Tassel jammed home a loose puck past Spruce Kings netminder Ryder Green.
Andreas Mikrogiannakis did all the work in front of the goal and was stopped point blank by Green prior to the goal being scored.
Ten minutes later, Cale Cowell made a slick curl and drag move from the half-wall past a Spruce Kings defender and wired a puck under the cross bar and over the glove of Green doubling the edge to 2-0 at the end of 40 minutes.
Prince George’s second-rate power-play during the BCHL regular season sustained a power outage on Friday going 0-for-5 while Langley failed to score in their lone opportunity.
“All we can do is give it our all,” said Young. “They are a great team as I have said, both teams will put their best foot forward and at the end of the day, the best team is going to win.
Since coming over from Okotoks, Young is 7-2 with the Rivermen, tallying a 3.13 goals against average and a .916 save percentage.
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PG outshot the Rivermen by a 36-23 margin. Langley finished the regular season with a 28-25-1-0 mark, 14 points fewer than the Spruce Kings who claimed the Coastal East division crown.
The Kopar Memorial Arena saw 1,162 fans come to see Game 1 of the Coastal East division quarter-final on Good Friday. Langley leads the best-of-seven 1-0.
Game Two goes tonight (Saturday) at 6pm.
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