The scenario, as it turned out, shaped up almost perfectly Friday for the Prince George Spruce Kings.
First off, they took care of business and beat the Surrey Eagles 3-2 in overtime at South Surrey Arena, no small task considering the Eagles are well-entrenched in third place in the BCHL Coastal Conference.
That ended a three-game slide for Prince George and kept their vision of a postseason future intact.
Will Moore’s second goal of the game, 2:31 into overtime, settled it for the Spruce Kings. Moore also tied the game 13:27 into the third period on a Prince George power play.
The Kings besieged the Eagles net with 13 shots in the third period on the way to a 42-26 advantage in the game. They only got one puck on net in OT but Moore made it count.
Kazumo Sasaki got the Spruce Kings on the board on another PG power play late in the second period, his 17th goal of the season and that cut the Eagles lead in half. Yuchan Kong, on a Surrey power play, and Cameron Caron, both scored second-period goals.
Charles-Edward Gravel got back on the winning track, stopping 21 of 23 shots, to improve his impressive BCHL record to 5-1 since joining the Kings from the QMJHL in February.
Maddox Osaka was the busier of the two goalies, making 39 saves.
The other side of the coin was what happened 16 kilometres away Friday in Langley.
The Langley Rivermen blew a 5-0 in the third period and lost 7-6 in overtime to the visiting Cowichan Valley Capitals. Camden Bajzer scored the winner for the Caps 2:35 into overtime.
Ilya Rogovsky scored for the Rivermen 18:19 into the third period to force overtime.
Why does that matter to the Spruce Kings? They’re chasing the Rivermen for the last playoff spot in the Coastal Conference. The Rivermen did gain a point but the Spruce Kings added two to their total to move within three points of Langley for eighth place.
Prince George has a game in hand over Langley and those teams will meet next Friday and Saturday in Prince George.
The Spruce Kings (18-23-3-1) will get a day to rest up for their game Sunday afternoon (4 p.m.) in Salmon Arm against the Silverbacks.
