If there was a game the Prince George Spruce Kings wanted to win this season, it would have been against the Wenatchee Wild.
The Fred Page Cup runners up blitzed the defending champs on Thursday in a 3-2 victory at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena (RMCA).
“It was real nice, all the returners knew what we had to do to get the victory and we knew it was a big win for sure,” said Dustin Manz, Spruce Kings Forward.
Prince George played like a team with something to prove in the first 40 minutes out-shooting Wenatchee by a margin of 24-7 and taking a two-goal lead into the dressing room courtesy of Manz, Liam Watson-Brawn and, Nolan Welsh.
Even though Watson-Brawn’s marker will stand up as the game-winner, it was the goal by Manz that really turned the tide as Wild goaltender Austin Park came out to play the puck and subsequently turned it over giving the 19-year-old one of the easier goals he’ll ever score in the BCHL.
“The puck chipped off my foot and came right to me and I guess he made a poor play at shot it right at Brar (Ben) and it went off the post right to me.”
“The goals were huge for us as we really needed those especially after our first was pretty good but our second needed to be better and we came out with a real good second on those goals too.”
The temperature of the game started to heat up after Lucas Sowder scored early in the third to cut the deficit to one for the Wild.
It went up to a boil thanks to a number of hits and post-whistle scrums leading to some jaw-jacking amongst the players.
On the blueline, the Spruce Kings were led by 17-year-old Layton Ahac relished the rivalry game, a mere five-and-a-half months since they last met.
“It was a lot of fun especially how it ended, I feel unreal right now and it feels amazing to beat that team after last year and we just stuck to our game and it paid off. I’m real happy.”
It’s been a good week for the Ohio State commit who was also ranked as a “B” skater in the NHL’s central scouting’s Players to Watch List preliminary ranking for the June Draft taking place in Vancouver.
The ranking projects him to go in the second or third round, but Ahac admits that’s a long way off.
“At the end of the day, the draft is in June and right now its October so there’s a lot of hockey that needed to be played but it’s a good feeling to be recognized for something like that.”
With the win, Prince George improves to 7-2-0-1 on the season and leapfrogs the Chilliwack Chiefs and Coquitlam Express for top spot in the Mainland Division.
The loss drops Wenatchee to an even 5-5-0-0 in the Interior and is still in a first place tie with the West Kelowna Warriors and Merritt Centennials.
Logan Neaton made 15 saves in between the pipes for Prince George.
Attendance for the game was 912.
The Spruce Kings return home on Friday when the welcome Alex Newhook and the Victoria Grizzlies (6-3-0-0) at 7PM from the RMCA.