All it took for General Manager Mike Hawes was to pry a kid out of the nation’s capital to kick start a sputtering offense for the Prince George Spruce Kings.
And boy, did Ethan Montroy sure deliver.
A three-goal, one assist effort from the 19-year-old Ottawa product led the Spruce Kings to a 6-3 win over the Surrey Eagles on Saturday in front of a paltry crowd of 692 fans at the Kopar Memorial Arena – putting an emphatic end to a four-game losing streak.
It what was a goofy game due in large part to a lot of on-ice shenanigans, Montroy chose to drive the bus for PG (3-4).
Montroy opened the scoring at 5:34 of the first period following a chip by Skogen Schrott that sent Lucas Veilleux on a 2-on-1 who then located the 19-year-old for his first of three markers.
The ex-Cornwall Colt was back at it again thirteen minutes later – only this time Schrott stopped inside the Eagles blueline and let Montroy do the rest as his shot went under the pad of goaltender Maddox Osaka for a 2-0 lead.
However, the opening 20 minutes wasn’t without its fair share of drama. Following the first Spruce Kings goal, forward Brogan McNeil (PG) and Surrey forward Massimo Fazio dropped the gloves in what was considered a “staged fight” by the officials and were subsequently five-minute majors along with game misconducts.
Vanderhoof product Linden Makow (PG) also found himself in the middle of a scrap taking on Dean Toskos. Both players were given a fighting major accompanied by a ten-minute misconduct aiding in their return to play.
Spruce Kings over ager Ty Paisley was also issued a ten-minute misconduct after failing to leave the area of a fight when asked by official Daniel Olfert.
The parade to the penalty box spilled into the second period as Veilleux crunched Surrey forward Landon Jassman from behind and was awarded a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
Vital Dinis was then called for a cross-check 36 seconds later after what appeared to be a late slash by Jassman on Spruce Kings goaltender Carter Wishart that went undetected.
This forced PG to play with a rotation of just six forwards, which included a lengthy 5-on-3. Sihwan Kim cut the deficit in half as his slapshot beat Wishart.
Surrey evened the score courtesy of Brandon Gill at the 16:59 mark taking advantage of a feed from Brady Kudrick.
Undeterred and re-energized, Montroy again took the game over in the third period as his wrist shot beat Osaka putting the Spruce Kings back in the driver’s seat.
“It feels good for the confidence, and I can’t thank the Prince George organization for welcoming me. It was pretty easy to come in and perform like I did,” said Montroy.
“I talked to Mike (Hawes) over the summer and it was a big decision and I figured I would start the year in Cornwall and see how I would do and had a good start. Mike and I had a good talk and gave me an opportunity to come up here,” said Montroy post-game.
Montroy executed the role of play maker sending a hard pass on the tape of Kazumo Sasaki who went to the back hand and lifted the puck into the top corner.
Paisely and Schrott added singles three minutes apart to add insult to injury while Kudrick blasted a one-timer with 14 seconds remaining to make the score line a little more respectable.
Surrey (3-4) outshot PG 54-34 – this included a 25-10 spread in the second that was penalty-aided. Both teams went 1-for-4 on the power-play.
It was the best game for Spruce Kings netminder Carter Wishart who turned aside 51 Eagles attempts, including a pair of breakaways and a point-blank stop on Kudrick in the second period.
“It was nice to be able to get in a bit of a groove. Yesterday (Friday) wasn’t my best performance so I felt like I owed it to the boys, and it gave me a little extra jump. I was doing everything I could to keep the puck out of the net.”
“Killing penalties is a great momentum shift for the game. In the second, we were getting outplayed for a good bit of that but killing that penalty gave us a little extra jump.”
The game marked the 150th BCHL regular season contest for Makow who the longest-tenured player on the Spruce Kings roster is.
A graduate of the Cariboo Cougars program, Makow has 72 career BCHL points during that time, which includes a pair of 16-goal campaigns.
“It’s pretty special. As a hometown kid it’s good to play for this organization for as long as I have. It’s pretty special. I couldn’t have asked for a better performance from my guys.”
The Spruce Kings now embark on a four-game, five-day, two-province road swing. First up for PG will be back-to-back games in Alberta against the Okotoks Oilers (1-5-0-0) and Brooks Bandits (5-0-0) Friday and Saturday.
After a full day on the bus, PG will then make their way to the league showcase in Abbotsford and suit up against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs (3-2-1-0) (7pm) and Blackfalds Bulldogs (0-5-0-0)(4pm).
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