It was the Jarod Hovde show at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena as the Prince George Spruce Kings beat up the Surrey Eagles 7-2 on Sunday.
Hovde got things going just 31 seconds into the game blowing a slap-shot past the glove of Eagles goalie Justin Laforest.
Jaxon Joseph evened the score for Surrey at 12:12 before Parker Colley took back the lead making it 2-1 after 20 minutes.
Prince George scored two more in the middle frame off the sticks of Hovde and Nik Ponak taking a 4-1 advantage after 40 two periods.
The onslaught would continue with three more Spruce Kings goals from Cavin Tilsley, Matthew Stief followed by Hovde’s third of the game.
Paul McAvoy replied for Surrey.
The victory also marked the final BCHL game for Prince George product and Spruce Kings defenseman Stephen Penner who finished it off with three assists and was named the game’s first star.
Spruce Kings Head Coach, Chad Van Diemen says he expects to climb up the standings next fall after a less then stellar year. “We feel we are going to be significantly better. It was a good experience for some of the guys, recruiting has gone well and are extremely happy with the futures deals which should all add up.”
“Our goal is to win our league and we need to also win some recruiting battles against those clubs as well.”
Van Diemen adds in order to reach their goal they need to prove they can beat some of the higher-echelon teams first.
“Top to bottom we have a very tough division. Between all the elite teams in the BCHL we only had one win and just a single overtime point which is nowhere near good enough to be successful.”
The Spruce Kings finish the season with a 14-38-4-2 record good enough for fifth in the Mainland Division falling 17 points back of the Coquitlam Express for the final playoff spot.
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