Spruce Kings Drop Battle with Crusaders

The Prince George Spruce Kings fought to the end, but couldn’t come up with another tying goal as the Sherwood Park Crusaders escaped with a 3-2 win on Sunday afternoon in Prince George.

The Crusaders opened the scoring as Masun Fleece snuck one through Charles Gravel at 3:44, after the pucked kicked into the left circle from the corner boards. Maxime Ly and Joel Purdom drew the assists on Fleece’s 12th goal of the season.

Just 2:09 later off a face-off, a strange bounce off a point shot slid through the crease on the opposite side of Gravel, and from behind the net Kale Dach and Poul Anderson poked it back towards the slot as Jude Bray put it home to make it 2-0 just 6:53 in.

The Spruce Kings would respond in the later stages of the second period as Mason Loewen separated Cooper Sharp from the puck, and beat Spencer Michnik over the glove to make it 2-1.

Prince George capitalized on their second power play opportunity of the night at 10:52 as Linden Makow scored just 10 seconds into the man advantage with a wrister through Michnik from Trend LeDrew and Brock Cummings to tie the game.

At 12:58 after the Spruce Kings fired one on goal, Michnik pushed the puck forward with his blocker to Lucas Brennan who found Fleece on the left wing. After entering the zone, Fleece fed the puck back to Brennan who snapped home the go ahead goal.

The Spruce Kings wouldn’t capitalize on a power play just after that goal, and were unable to find the equalizer down the stretch.

Prince George embarks on a three games in two and a half days road trip next weekend in the Lower Mainland trailing the Langley Rivermen by 4 points for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Coastal Conference.  Catch the action Friday night from Coquitlam on 99.3 REWIND Radio.