Photo: Vicki Brown – MyLight Photography
Ryan Wachtel scored three times, his second hat-trick in the last four games, as the Prince George Spruce Kings won their seventh straight contest 7-2 over the Surrey Eagles on Sunday afternoon at Kopar Memorial Arena.
Nick Bianchi started the scoring at 4:29 of the first period on the power play, getting his original shot back off a block, dishing it over to Ryan Wachtel who sent it back up top and Bianchi’s wrister beat a screened Justin Briesbois.
The power play went back to work early in the second period, as Dominic Szczygiel extended his point streak to eight games with his seventh of the season at 2:27, putting home a loose puck from the top of the crease after multiple chances from Wachtel and Max Mahoney, who drew the assists.
Wachtel scored his first of the game exactly two minutes later on another man advantage, as his one-timer from below the left dot beat Briesbois to make it 3-0. Charlie Spencer picked up his second assist of the night along with Bianchi picking up his 15th assist of the season.
Loik Leduc got the Eagles on the board at 11:16, taking the puck to his backhand and beating Cody Arnold past the blocker to make it 3-1.
Prince George responded just 1:21 later, as Spencer found Cooper Faughnan in the attacking zone. As he took the puck back towards the top of the circle, Cristian Achim called for it, and hammered a slap shot past the left pad of Briesbois to make it 4-1 after 40 minutes.
Just 1:10 into the third period, Wachtel picked up his second of the night, an almost carbon copy of his first just at the other end of the rink, popping the one-timer from Spencer and Bianchi to end the night of Briesbois as Grady Peterson came in for Surrey.
Spencer would take over the league lead in points by scoring his 7th of the year on a nice three-way passing play as Trent Gates found Noah Franzina who dished a Spencer-like pass on the backhand for the tap-in. Spencer’s 5th point of the night was his 27th of the season.
The Eagles got a solo effort from Aleksi Tuovinen at 12:42 of the third, beating three Spruce Kings to draw a delayed penalty, then grabbed the loose puck and beat Arnold to make it 6-2.
Wachtel finished the hat-trick with 3:43 remaining, as Szczygiel picked off a pass and found his linemate to make it 7-2. Wachtel’s goal was his 15th of the season, moving him into a tie for first in the BCHL for goals with Emmanuel Chan of the West Kelowna Warriors. Szczygiel extended his assist streak to six games with the helper.
Cody Arnold made 35 saves to pick up his 5th win of the season. Arnold sits second in the BCHL in Goals Against Average and first in the BCHL in Save Percentage.
The Spruce Kings head back on the road for the next five games, starting with the Nanaimo Clippers on Saturday November 7th at 7 PM in a rematch of last years Coastal Conference Final. The game will be broadcast live on 99.3 REWIND Radio and FloHockey.
Tickets to the next Spruce Kings game on November 20th against the Langley Rivermen are available at www.showpass.com/pgsk-11-20-rivermen
