The Prince George Spruce Kings began their 2016-17 Fred Page Cup Playoffs with Game 1 of a best-of-seven series south of the border.
They met with #1-ranked Wenatchee at the Town Toyota Center Saturday night with the hopes of keeping up with the Wild’s speedy offense and the scoring abilities of recently announced BCHL MVP Brendan Harris.
A goal from @brarzan but the Spruce Kings fall short in game 1 of the Mainland semi-finals. Rematch tomorrow at 5:05pm pic.twitter.com/yvVk9oNO5D
— Spruce Kings (@SpruceKings) March 5, 2017
After a scoreless opening frame, the visiting Spruce Kings were able to get pucks to the net and keep the shots-on-goal ratio as close as they could.
Wenatchee’s Dakota Raabe and Jasper Weatherby, however, would combine for two goals near mid-second period to jump to a 2-0 lead.
Prince George killed off the middle frame to stay alive in the battle royale and 6:16 into the third, they were rewarded with a power-play goal by forward Ben Brar; Chong Hyun Lee and Tanner Campbell were credited with the helpers.
The Wild could not be tamed for the rest of the game, especially Matthew Baker, who scored the final two goals 4:06 apart completing a three-point night and lifting Wenatchee to an early 1-0 series lead on Prince George.
Wild add two power play goals to cap the scoring, and take Game 1 by a score of 4-1. Final shots 29-25 for @WenatcheeWild1
— Spruce Kings (@SpruceKings) March 5, 2017
Spruce Kings netminder Tavin Grant made 25 saves on 29 shots, while Wild goalie Aaron Yamnitsky halted all but one of PG’s 25 attempts.
The Spruce Kings will look to even the series Sunday night in Game 2 against Wenatchee; puck-drop goes for 5:05 PM.
Prince George will return home for the first time in a month for Games 3 and 4 at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena on March 7th and 8th; both games will start at 7PM.
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