The Prince George Spruce Kings ended a four-game losing streak and gave interim head coach Brad Tesink a night to remember Friday in Coquitlam.
Ryder Green stopped 35 of 37 shots and the Spruce Kings hung on to defeat the Coquitlam Express 5-2.
Prince George jumped into 4-0 lead in the first period to chase Express starting goalie Eric Young from the game.
Ethan Montroy got the Kings started 2:13 in after an offensive-zone face-off win from Brock Cummings. Cumming than scored on a tap-in in front set up by all-star defenceman Skogan Schrott to make it 2-0.
Then with the Kings on a power play, Lucas Veilleux was standing in front to tip in Montroy’s shot from the high slot. Evan Bellamy’s wrister from the circle ended Young’s night 14:27 into the first.
Outshot 11-7 in the opening period, the Express came on strong the rest of the game while outshooting Prince George a combined 30-9 in the final two periods. Green, a 17-year-old BCHL rookie from Prince George, was equal to the task.
He gave up an even-strength goal to Nate Crema in the second period and Sam Fredina beat him on a power-play point short, but that was it for the Coquitlam scoring.
Linden Makow scored into an empty Coquitlam net.
Green left the rink with his third win of the season.
Tesink took over from Alex Evin, who was relieved of his head coaching duties on Monday. Tesink started the season as the Spruce Kings’ associate coach.
The Spruce Kings improved to 7-12-2-1 and they remain ninth in the Coastal Conference. The Express dropped to 12-9-2-1.
The Spruce Kings will be in Langley to face the Rivermen (10-9-4-1, seventh in Coastal) tonight ( 7 p.m.)
Kyle Anderson will have the play-by-play descriptions on Mixlr, or you can watch it on Flo TV starting at 7 p.m.
