Hundreds of warm winter clothes were hurled over the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena (RMCA) boards in the latter-half of the opening frame courtesy of the Prince George Spruce Kings.
Mason Waite was the 2019 rainmaker in his team’s Christmas-themed sweaters as donations falling to the ice benefitted the St. Vincent de Paul Society, but the Spruce Kings couldn’t answer the cause for a win Friday night (Dec. 13).
The league-leading Coquitlam Express doubled up the red, white and green by a score of 4-2 on Drop the Gloves, Sock it to ‘Em Night.
The visitors enjoyed leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 before stealing the road game with 67 seconds left in regulation time.
Jett Alexander got the start fresh after being named the BCHL’s first recipient of the new Community Hero Award this week and was the busiest of the two goaltenders at the RMCA yesterday in making 29 saves on 33 shots.
Clay Stevenson, the top netminder in the league, turned away 20 of 22 shots from Prince George.
Waite’s goal came 13:51 into the first period while on a power-play, the assists going to Corey Cunningham and Nick Bochen, 10 minutes after the Express opened the scoring.
Coquitlam regained the one-goal lead at the 16:00 mark of the same frame, but ‘Kings Captain Nolan Welsh retaliated 46 seconds later to tie it up at 2-2 going into the dressing room.
Evan Orr and Fin Williams were credited with the helpers.
The Express scored one goal in each of the next two periods, including one on a power-play and eventually handing Prince George a fourth consecutive loss.
The Spruce Kings’ record fall to 11-19-2-3 and are 0-4 amidst a five-game homestand, which they’ll wrap up tonight (Dec. 14) against Coquitlam once again.
Puck-drop goes for 7 p.m. at the RMCA in the final home game of the 2019 portion of the season.
