Missed opportunities came back to cost the Chilliwack Chiefs Friday night as they fell 2-1 to the Prince George Spruce Kings at Prospera Centre.
The Chiefs were the better team from start to finish, but couldn’t get the scoreboard to recognize it.
And because of that, Chilliwack may have doomed themselves to hours on a bus for the first round of the BCHL playoffs. At 26-25-3-3 and losers of four of their last five the Chiefs have slid to fourth place in the Mainland division standings. If that holds, they’ll draw the Spruce Kings for round one of the playoffs, with all the travel that goes with it.
One of the mini-themes around the Chiefs this season is their ability to outplay an opponent by a wide margin for long stretches, yet come away with nothing, and that’s what happened in the first period of this one.
Chilliwack dominated zone time and held an 11-7 edge in shots on goal, but trailed 1-0 at the break.
Ben Brar got PG on the board first, scoring on the power play.
Ethan de Jong started the play below the left faceoff circle, carrying the puck into the goal-mouth where his weak shot hit the far post and settled in the blue paint. Brar found it before Chilliwack goalie Daniel Chenard, popping it into the cage for his team-high 25th of the season.
The Chiefs got that back early in the second period.
PJ Marrocco lined up Spruce King defender Chays Ruddy behind the PG net, jolting him off the puck. Captain Will Calverley nabbed it and stuffed it inside the right post on a wraparound.
But same story as the first. Despite outshooting Prince George 14-7 in the middle frame, all they got was a 1-1 tie heading to period three.
Chilliwack dodged a massive injury bullet midway through the final frame.
Speeding through the neutral zone, Marrocco was slash-tripped by PG’s Jay Keranen. Marrocco used his arm to break the fall and stayed down for several moments in obvious pain. When he came off the ice it looked bad, his left arm hanging limp at his side and his right arm hugging his chest.
But he was only gone a couple minutes.
With Keranen’s minor halfway done, de Jong took a two minute slashing minor, giving Chilliwack a two-man advantage for 60 seconds.
Marrocco was on the ice for a power play that proved punchless, coming up empty in a big spot.
And of course, that came back to bite them in the butt when the Spruce Kings produced the game winning goal. With 3:57 on the clock, PG defenceman Liam Watson-Brawn put a wrist shot on net from the left point. The shot was high, and Chenard had the puck bounce off his chest into the air. The goalie tried to slap it away with his stick but missed, and it landed in the goal-mouth where Dustin Manz was able to rifle it home.
Chenard came to the bench for the extra attacker with 1:16 remaining but nothing happened, save a brief tustle after the final whistle.
The three stars were Calverley (first), Spruce Kings goalie Evan DeBrouwer (second) and Chenard (third).
The Fortis BC Energy Player of the Game was Adam Berg.
Announced attendance was 1,916.