Despite what could have been their best effort of the season, The Prince George Spruce Kings were on the wrong end of a bad bounce in overtime, leading to their 4-3 loss to the Salmon Arm Silverbacks Friday night.
Friday was the first time the Spruce Kings were back at Kopar Memorial Arena since September 30th in the first of two games against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
From the first puck drop, the game was close. The first period saw four total goals split in half between the two teams.
The first five minutes of the first period saw one goal for both the Spruce Kings and the Silverbacks. Ryan Gillespie (’03) got the Silverbacks on the board, scoring his third goal of the season. Not even two minutes later, Kilian McGregor-Bennett (’03) tipped his fourth goal of the season through the legs of Silverbacks goalie Eli Pulver (’03).
Later in the first period, Ty Paisley (’04) scored the second Salmon Arm goal of the game. However, the Spruce Kings struck back quickly when J.R Perdion scored his third goal of the season, beating Pulver point-blank from the slot. 2-2, the score after the first period.
The second period only saw one puck find the back of the net. Ty Paisley, gave Salmon Arm the lead on a controversial non-call that could have been whistled down as an offside. Regardless, Paisley jammed home a rebound beating Spruce Kings goalie Marcus Ouellet (’04).
The only goal in the third period came off the stick of Jared Langdon (’06) on the power-play. After the Silverbacks got into penalty trouble early in the third period, Langdon tipped a shot from the point from Perdion on the net and over the shoulder of Pulver, tying the game at three. The goal would be Langdon’s first of the season and the first goal of his BCHL career. 3-3, the score after three periods in Prince George.
The game-winning goal, while credited to JJ Monteiro (’06), took a bad bounce off the skate of Kazumo Sasaki (’05) and unfortunately slid past Ouellet. 4-3, the final score from Kopar Memorial Arena.