The Prince George Spruce Kings pieced together a comeback victory over the Wenatchee Wild Friday night at Kopar Memorial Arena, defeating the Wild by a score of 4-3.
Northern BC product Linden Makow potted the game-winning goal in the third period to give the home side their first lead of the game, and they held on from there.
In the first period, Jonathan Horn opened the scoring for the Wild. On their first powerplay opportunity, Horn was on the receiving on of a setup from David Hejduk. Horn blasted a one-time shot from the top of the right-wing circle and put it in past Jordan Fairlie at 10:33.
At 17:03, Horn scored his second of the night. The goal was his sixth of the season. Christian Kim tallied his second assist of the night.
Before the end of the period, Prince George was able to find themselves on the man advantage. Jake Schneider controlled the back at the point before sending a quick pass to the backside of the net where he found teammate Ty Gagno parked for the easy tip-in. The goal was Gagno’s third of the season as they narrowed the deficit by one before the end of the period.
In the second period, Cade Littler worked the puck behind the PG net. With Fairlie caught out of position, Littler swept around to the front of the net before tucking the puck between the post and the skate of Fairlie. The goal extended the Wild lead to 3-1 just 51 seconds into the middle period.
At 9:27, Colton Cameron narrowed the lead again. The Spruce Kings’ captain put a shot into traffic, deflecting off a Wild defender and in past Owen Millward to make the score 3-2. The goal was Cameron’s first of the season. John Herrington and Kilian McGregor-Bennett earned the helpers on the play.
In the third period, with Prince George upping the shots on Millward, the ice tilted in favour of PG.
At 5:24 of the third period, Amran Bhabra put a point shot off the end boards. Playing the bounce, Jack Stockfish fired the puck quickly on net and put it in past Millward for this third goal of the season. The goal knotted the score up at 3-3.
Less than a minute and a half later, Linden Makow put himself in front of the net and swatted in a rebound in past Millward to put Prince George ahead after Herrington fired a puck on net.
The Spruce Kings held on in the final few minutes even after the Wild pulled their goalie in favour of a sixth skater.
Jordan Fairlie stopped 22 of the 25 shots he faced in the winning effort. Meanwhile, Millward stopped 22 of the 26 shots he faced before getting pulled late in the third period.
Prince George improves to 8-3-0-1 following the victory while the Wild now sit at 2-8-0-1.
The two clubs will be back at Kopar Memorial Arena Saturday night for the second matchup of their weekend series.