Paul De Jersey scored twice and added two assists to the lead the Prince George Spruce Kings to a 5-2 victory over the visiting Chilliwack Chiefs Thursday night.
The win solidifies the Spruce Kings hold on third place in the Interior Conference and moves them three points up on the fourth place Chiefs.
After withstanding an early offensive onslaught from the Spruce Kings, Jeremy Gossard opened the scoring giving the Chiefs a 1-0 lead six minutes into the game. Gossard’s shot from the faceoff circle dribbled across the goal line after tipping off the blocker of Kings starting goaltender Kirk Thompson.
The Spruce Kings answered just over two minutes later on the power play. With Chiefs forward Trevor Hills serving two minutes for interference, Leo Fitzgerald finished off a nice passing play to tie the game at one. Paul De Jersey earned an assist, his league leading 71st point of the season, as did Jarryd Ten Vaanholt.
Shots after one favored the Spruce Kings 13-8.
Aided by some incredible saves by goaltender Mitch Gillam, the Chiefs were able to kill off a 77 second two man disadvantage to start the second period.
The Chiefs regained the lead on a goal by Malcolm Gould at the 5:38 mark of the middle frame. Gould knocked in his own rebound after being set up on a two on one by Derek Huisman. Trevor Hills also picked up an assist on Gould’s 17th goal of the season.
Prince George knotted the game at two at 14:33 of the second period. Once again it was the combination of De Jersey and Ten Vaanholt doing the damage. This time it Ten Vaanholt who was the recipient of a De Jersey feed in front of the Chiefs net and he made no mistake in burying his 18th goal of the season and his first since being acquired from the Victoria Grizzlies on January 10th.
De Jersey got his name on the score sheet again this time scoring his league leading 34th goal of the season 62 seconds in to the third period to give the Spruce Kings their first lead of the game. Ten Vaanholt earned the lone assist, his third point of the night.
The Chiefs had two glorious chances to tie the game at three. On the power play David Thompson’s shot hit the goal post. Moments later Kit Sitterley just failed to push the puck across the goal line in a goal mouth scramble.
With three minutes left De Jersey struck again to put Prince George up 4-2. Michael Colantone finished the scoring with 52 seconds left in the third period.
Prince George outshot Chilliwack 34-27.
The Chiefs were 0/5 on the power play and 4/5 on the penalty kill.
The two teams will meet again Friday night in Prince George. Chilliwack returns to home ice on Sunday at 5pm when they host the Westside Warriors.
Notes: The Chiefs dressed five defensemen and 13 forwards. Tyler Miller is still out with an injury. Jaret Babych returned to the lineup but saw limited action…The Spruce Kings were without Myles and Gerald Fitzgerald, both were out with the flu…Paul De Jersey now has two four point games versus the Chiefs this season.
