Talk about a quick turnaround.
Less than 24 hours after getting dumped 8-1 against the Prince George Spruce Kings on Friday, the Langley Rivermen needed a huge rebound performance from goaltender Braedon Fleming to return the favour.
His 37-save performance turned out to be the difference as Langley earned a tight-checking 2-1 result in front of 958 fans at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena (RMCA).
Jake Livingstone put the Rivermen on the board first early in the opening period when a slapshot from the point on the power-play fooled Spruce Kings netminder Bradley Cooper for a 1-0 lead.
After Fleming made a number of glove saves to preserve the lead, Langley jumped out by a pair after Cooper lost his stick on the play and allowed a Trevor Ayre goal through the wickets to double the visitors advantage six minutes into the middle frame.
Despite a constant barrage of shots, Nick Bochen broke through for the Spruce Kings with less than a minute left in the game ripping a point shot over the shoulder of Fleming cutting the deficit to 2-1.
The 17-year-old blueliner said after the game Prince George’s execution wasn’t quite at the same level as the night prior.
“After the game yesterday I don’t think we were expecting them to bounce back like that and we just weren’t ready for it,”
Spruce Kings captain Ben Poisson agreed with the young defenceman who refused to give all the credit to the opposing netminder.
“Obviously we ran into a hotter goalie but we can’t put it all on that, we had a lot of chances that we could have scored on and I don’t know if we thought it would be easier or we just didn’t bear down and get it done because something wasn’t right.”
The Spruce Kings outshot Langley 38-23 overall.
Prince George drops to 15-7-1-0 on the season to remain tied for second place in the Mainland Division with the Coquitlam Express, three back of the Chilliwack Chiefs for top spot.
An Island Division road trip awaits the Spruce Kings next weekend with stops in Powell River (Friday), Alberni Valley (Saturday), and Nanaimo (Sunday).