After reaching the stratosphere two days earlier on home ice when they trounced the Penticton Vees 7-1 the Prince George Spruce Kings fell back to earth Friday night, with a thud.
They lost 3-0 to the Vees in front of 2,465 witnesses on retro night at South Okanagan Events Centre, which ended the Kings’ five-game winning streak.
Both teams dressed for the occasion wearing retro jerseys as a salute to the B.C. Hockey League’s 60th anniversary and the Vees took control with two second-period goals.
A centring pass from former Spruce King pivot Fin Williams deflected off the skate of Luc Wilson for the opening goal on a Penticton power play, 6:18 into the period. Rookie winger Ethan Mann collected his first career BCHL goal 31 seconds later, on a delayed penalty, and the Vees kept up the pressure, outshooting the Kings 14-3 in the second period.
Jackson Nieuwendyk scored the third goal into an empty net with less than two minutes to play.
The Vees outshot the Kings 38-13. Penticton scored on one of its four power-play chances and held the league’s top power lay without a goal in four opportunities. The Kings went 5-for-7 in Wednesday’s game.
Kaeden Lane picked up the shutout in the Vees nets, two nights after being pulled from the game in Prince George after two periods after he allowed five goals on 19 shots. Aaron Trotter stopped 35 of 37 shots he faced guarding the goal for Prince George.
The win kept the Vees (6-1-0-0-0, .857 winning percentage) in second place in the Interior Conference, just behind the first-place Salmon Arm Silverbacks (5-0-1-0-0), whose .917 winning percentage is slightly better than Pentcton’s.
The Kings (6-2-0-0-0) will try to get back to their wining ways Saturday in Merritt against the Centennials (0-6-0-0-0). Cole Waldie will have the play-by-play descriptions available on Mixlr (audio only) and Hockey TV (audio and video webcast).
