43 was not to be for the Vees

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 11, 2011 in Trail.

The setback also snaps the Vees twenty-two game winning streak on the road; their last road defeat dates back to November 2 in Vernon.

For the second night in a row, the Spruce Kings opened the scoring 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 centring 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.

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.

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 16 at the South Okanagan Events Centre.

--by Fraser Rodgers