It was an offensive clinic at Kopar Memorial Arena Saturday afternoon when the Prince George Spruce Kings got their first win of the 2023-24 BCHL season.
The Spruce Kings, now 1-1-1-0 threw 42 shots at the net, finding the twine five times in a dominating win over the Merritt Centennials.
After being down 1-0 in the first period, it was the Prince George native Scott Cousins (04) who got the Kings on the board. Cousins found the puck on his stick in the slot and made no mistake burying it behind the Centennials goalie Andrew Ballantyne (04).
The score stayed tied at one heading into the second period.
Alexis Cournoyer scored his first of the season two minutes into the second period, giving the Spruce Kings a 2-1 lead.
Ten minutes later, the Spruce Kings went to the powerplay when Centennials defenseman Ocean Fancy (04) was called for holding.
Prince George entered Saturday yet to score with the man advantage, but that changed when Kilian McGregor-Bennett (03) scored his second goal of the weekend on a back-hand shot that flew over the shoulder of Ballantyne.
A goal from Aidan Lindblad (04) cut the Spruce Kings lead to 3-2 heading into the third period.
In the final frame, the offensive production did not slow down. Skogen Schrott (05) banged home his second goal of the season from the side of the net.
Later on, once again on the powerplay, J.R Perdion (03) let it fly from the top of the circle beating Ballantyne over the shoulder and extending the lead to 5-2.
Merritt would add one more goal late in the third period. However, it was all Prince George in the second game of a back-to-back for the Spruce Kings.
Marcus Ouellet was the starting goalie for the Kings on Saturday. The Toronto, Ontario, product turned away 26 of the 29 shots he saw. While doing that Ouellet made what could be argued as the save of the year in the BCHL, which you can watch here.
The Final score from Kopar Memorial Arena Saturday was 5-3 Spruce Kings.