Patrick Cozzi is best known as a passer.
But for the second night in a row, the just-turned 21-year-old from Greenlawn, New York had the hot stick, scoring two more goals as the Prince George Spruce Kings continued to enjoy home cooking on Thursday with a 4-1 victory over the Brooks Bandits.
The victory puts Prince George (on a 19-game overall home winning streak) in the driver’s seat as they now lead the Doyle Cup 3-2 heading into Saturday’s Game Six from the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
After the game, Cozzi felt the rowdy fans are getting under the skin of the Bandits.
“I don’t think they are used to such a rowdy crowd or our atmosphere so we just have to keep playing the way we are playing and our fans are doing an unreal job in getting under their skin.”
Patrick Cozzi scores another beauty for the @SpruceKings (his third in the last two games) and PG skates to a 4-1 win to retake the #DoyleCup series lead! Game 6 goes Saturday back in PG! pic.twitter.com/LzAt6J1dwu
— BC Hockey League (@GoBCHL) May 3, 2019
The American forward now has three goals in the last two games of the Doyle Cup against Brooks taking some of the offensive pressure off his fellow linemates Dustin Manz and Ben Brar.
“I think the whole team is playing good right now. I have been fortunate to get a couple of bounces my way but everyone is playing really well, everyone is competing and playing really physical and we’re getting good results.”
The best-of-seven series has resembled an all-out-war over the past couple of nights, with both teams playing hard, coupled with lots of rough stuff after the whistle sending this matchup into a fever pitch.
“We don’t like each other for sure, we have had a lot of chirping and it’s a playoff atmosphere out there but it is a lot of fun, we don’t like eachother and we don’t like them but I think we both respect each other. We just have to keep beating them and get under their skin,” said Cozzi.
Prince George never trailed in the contest carrying period leads of 1-0 and 2-1.
In the second, Bandits blueliner Brandon Scanlin tied up the game briefly in the second before Ben Poisson re-took the lead for the Spruce Kings.
The captain puts the @SpruceKings back in front! Ben Poisson scores his second of the series to put PG back ahead 2-1 in Game 5 of the #DoyleCup. We are just underway in period 3! pic.twitter.com/Syybwg0neZ
— BC Hockey League (@GoBCHL) May 3, 2019
Corey Cunningham provided the insurance marker midway in the third period off of a broken play where Dylan Anhorn missed a chance in front of the net, but the puck boomeranged back to the Prince George product and he tucked home the rebound past an outstretched Pierce Charleson who took the loss in goal for Brooks.
His counterpart, Logan Neaton made 25 saves in the win and made a few game-saving stops for the Spruce Kings to keep them in front of the National Junior A Championship hosts.
“I think it was a really good team effort all the way from our defence to our forwards, it was a solid effort and we stuck to our gameplan and that’s what was worked,” said Neaton.
Puck drop for Game Six is 7:00 p.m., if the Bandits win on Saturday, a seventh game will be played on Sunday night at 7:00 from the RMCA.
Both teams are guaranteed a spot in the national championship, which kicks off May 11th in Brooks.