FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Sunday, March 11th
SPRUCE KINGS END VEES STREAK
PRINCE GEORGE, BC- Michael Colantone scored twice and Paul De Jersey chipped in with three assists as the Prince George Spruce Kings downed the Penticton Vees 5-2 Saturday.
The loss ends the Vees remarkable forty-two game winning streak, which started on November 11th in Trail. The setback also snaps the Vees twenty-two game winning streak on the road; their last road defeat dates back to November 2nd in Vernon.
For the second night in a row, the Spruce Kings opened the scoring and again early in the first period. Jarryd Ten Vaanholt put Prince George up 1-0 when he knocked in a rebound off a Paul De Jersey wrist-shot at 1:59.
Curtis Loik put the Vees back on event terms when he redirected a pass from Wade Murphy at 8:46. Murphy broke down the right-wing before centering to Loik who deflected the puck past Ty Swaab.
In the second, the Vees were the team to get on the board early; Bryce Gervais pouncing on a Steven Fogarty rebound just past the two minute mark. The goal was Gervais’s forty-second giving him a share of the goal-scoring title with Mario Lucia.
Prince George found an equalizer of their own late in the middle frame, as Ben Woodley beat Chad Katunar with a wrist-shot at 14:16; sending the game to the intermission tied at two’s.
Saturday it was the Spruce Kings having a break-out third period, as they scored three goals on eleven shots to seal their thirty-third win. Myles Fitzgerald got what turned out to be the game-winner just past the seven minute mark; stuffing in a rebound from a Trevor Esau point-shot.
Michael Colantone put the game away with two more goals in the third period; his first on the power-play as he jammed a puck underneath a sprawled Chad Katunar at 9:41. Colantone put the game out of reach with an empty-net goal in the dying moments.
FINAL SCORE:5-2 Spruce Kings
Shots: 36-27 Spruce Kings
Power-Plays: Vees 0/1 Spruce Kings 1/3
Three Stars 1) Paul De Jersey 2) Michael Colantone 3) Ty Swaab
Hardest Working Vee: 2011-2012 Vees regular season
Valley First Goal Donation Grand Total: $2, 600
The Vees end their regular season with a record of 54-4-0-2 and 110 points; the fifty-four wins and 110 points are new BCHL single-season records.
Penticton will now face the Chilliwack Chiefs in round one of the 2012 BCHL Fred Page Cup Playoffs; game one is Friday, March 16th at the SOEC.
The pre-game show on EZ Rock AM 800 starts twenty minutes prior to puck drop; you can also tune in on MyEZRock.com, and at BCHL.ca where both the audio stream and Pay-Per-View video are available.f
HEADER
