Hadyn Missler was more of a bank robber than a starting goaltender against the Prince George Spruce Kings.
Against all odds as well as playing on the worst team in the BCHL, the 19-year-old stole a rare road victory for the Surrey Eagles Saturday night, stunning the Mainland Division Leading Spruce Kings 2-1 at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
Missler’s 39-save performance was aided by the fact Surrey only put a measly nine shots towards Prince George netminder Logan Neaton who allowed two goals in defeat.
Many members of the Spruce Kings including 19-year-old forward Ben Poisson stormed off the ice dumbfounded on what they were just apart of, throwing everything including the kitchen sink at Missler, but came away empty-handed in the standings.
“We’re not happy with that especially losing to that team, we worked hard and had a lot of chances but couldn’t find a way to put it in,”
“You’ve got to hand it to him, he played well (Missler) but it’s on us because we had chances where that puck should be going in and we ended up missing those shots so that’s kind of what hurt us.”
Dustin Manz opened the scoring for the Spruce Kings on the power-play deflecting a point shot from Nick Bochen on the power-play to put the hosts in front 1-0.
However, Surrey continued to fight back and responded with a man-advantage marker of their own courtesy of Max Mohagen who banged home a rebound past Neaton to tie up the game.
With less than a minute remaining in the middle frame, some miscommunication between Neaton and Liam Watson-Brawn resulted in a collision and an easy tap-in goal for Dawson McKay who potted the game-winner.
The loss ends a seven-game homestand for the Spruce Kings who maintain a one-point divisional lead against the Chilliwack Chiefs who rebounded on the road to defeat the Langley Rivermen 6-5.
Prince George has two road games remaining before the Christmas break, Thursday in Langley and Friday against the Eagles.
Layton Ahac and Team Canada West fell 3-2 in overtime at the World Junior A Challenge semi-finals to USA and will play for bronze later today.