Just when you think the Prince George Spruce Kings have figured things out, they take another step back.
A pair of third period goals from Callum Hughes and Landen Hilditch led the West Kelowna Warriors to a 4-1 victory over the Spruce Kings in front of 1,789 fans at the Kopar Memorial Arena on Saturday.
Luca Primerano opened the scoring for PG as his one-time blast on the power-play slipped past an off-balanced Rorke Applebee.
However, the Warriors struck back with a man-advantage marker of their own as Felix Caron took a feed from Isaiah Norlin who beat Spruce Kings netminder Ryan Sanborn for a 1-1 tie after 20 minutes.
The second period saw numerous penalties, which has highlighted by a spirited scrap involving Linden Makow (Spruce Kings) and Trey Ausmus (Warriors) from just inside the West Kelowna blueline.
Shortly after, a defensive breakdown inside the Prince George zone led to a 2-on-1 for the Warriors where Jackson Kyrkostas slapped home a quick feed from Swedish import Viggo Nordstrom for a 2-1 lead heading into the intermission.
The turning point of the game came at 12:25 of third period where Jack Pridham toe-tapped his way past overage blueliner Kai Greaves and locating Hughes on the 2-on-1 for a two-goal Warrior lead.
Hilditch added the empty-netter with over three minutes to play after a neutral zone turnover by Spruce Kings defenseman Trent Ballentyne.
PG went 1-for-5 on the power-play while West Kelowna was 1-for-3. The Warriors outshot the Spruce Kings 32-22.
Next up for the Spruce Kings (4-8-3-0) is a Wednesday tilt against the Coquitlam Express (7-6-0-1) at 7pm from the Kopar Memorial Arena.
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