Lougheed Beats Buzzer for Skate-Off Win

The Prince George Spruce Kings left it to the last tenth of a second, but Marcus Lougheed beat the buzzer off a faceoff in the final minute of the third period to extend the winning streak to five games with a 4-3 victory over the Coquitlam Express on Friday night.

Coquitlam would get their Teddy Bear Toss goal at 13:46 of the opening period as Georgios Stavrianeas hammered a one-timer past Ryder Green on the power play to open the scoring.

The Spruce Kings responded at 17:20, as Trent LeDrew’s blocked shot was tracked down by River Arnason, who sent the puck on goal where Carter Hesselgrave pushed it towards netminder Ryan Parker.  While Parker thought the puck was in his possession, it was actually loose and Hesselgrave poked it through and over the line to tie the game.

The Express responded just 36 seconds later when Shaenen Long forced a Spruce King off the puck and sent it to Cole Bieksa to beat Green for a 2-1 lead.

Prince George was lucky in the middle frame to escape a couple of messy sequences in the defensive zone, and at 17:16, Michael Denney and Jackson Froysland worked the puck into a 3 on 2 opportunity.  As Denney found Frosyland over the blue line, he spotted Ryan Wachtel entering as the third man and found him with the pass. Wachtel made no mistake to the top corner to tie the game at two.

At the end of a major penalty to Tai Ushio, Evan Bellamy would find Mason Loewen in the neutral zone, and Arnason, who was serving the penalty joined the odd man rush and beat Parker with a one-timer to give the Spruce Kings a 3-2 lead.

Coquitlam would respond at 12:31, just under a minute later as Carson Lesiuk poked a loose puck home as this game looked destined for overtime.

As the puck rolled on Parker in the final minute, he would freeze it to set up the faceoff.

Ben Vreugdenhil won the puck forward, and Lougheed snapped it immediately upstairs to send the Spruce Kings off the bench simultaneously as the buzzer sounded.  It would go to video review but be deemed a good goal.

Prince George heads into Langley tomorrow with points in their last six games, and are 5-1-1 in their last seven road games.