PHOTO: David Stevens
Tre Peck doubled his goal total with a pair of markers while Joseph Quintilio turned aside 21 of 22 shots as the Spruce Grove Saints earned their fourth victory in the last five games, knocking off the Coquitlam Express by a 4-1 score on Saturday night at the Poirier Recreation Centre.
Peck got the scoring going in the game, his first tally coming at 8:17 of the opening period on a face-off victory in the offensive zone. After the puck bounced off the right shin pad of Adam Perron in the left circle, Michael Azzarone took the puck to the glove side of Coquitlam netminder Mitchell Pearce as he forced the puck to the front of the net on his backhand before Peck buried the rebound for his 3rd of the season and pushed the Saints to a 1-0 advantage.
Quintilio stood tall in the Saints net as Spruce Grove extended the lead to a pair later in the period and came courtesy of Brodie Hankel tucking in his first career BCHL marker at the 17:56 mark of the opening period. Felix Haibock walked off the right wing half board to the top of the face-off circle and threw a shot to the net that banked off an Express defender and right to Hankel in the corner, who quickly shot low and to the blocker side of a sliding Pearce to beat him inside the left post for the goal and pushing the Saints ahead by a 2-0 score.
Coquitlam opened the second period with a power play goal as Nolan Flynn had time and space in the right face-off circle and zipped a wrist shot over the blocker side of Quintilio to cut the deficit to one before the Saints registered a power play of their own with Scott Sandilands notching his third goal in his last four games to get the Saints ahead by a pair once more.
A passing play at the top of the zone saw Max Holland set up Brett Barnes who spotted Sandilands in the left face-off circle who has his one-time shot fanned on but had enough to pop over the left shoulder of Pearce to earn his 3rd goal of the season and give Spruce Grove a 3-1 advantage heading into the final period of play.
The Saints did an effective job of shutting down the Express, limiting them to 22 shots in the game, and pushed their lead to three goals for the first and last time on the night with Peck burying his second goal of the game, a highlight reel goal to give the Saints a 4-1 lead.
Barnes stretched a pass to the right side from his own zone as Declan Waddick touched the puck to the middle to the skating Peck who got behind the Express defense and made moves in tight to the net before finishing on the backhand for his second goal of the game and fourth of the season to give the Saints the big third period advantage.
Joseph Quintilio closed the door the remainder of the way, making 21 of 22 saves for his 3rd victory of the season while Mitchell Pearce turned aside 20 of the 24 shots thrown toward him in his 2nd loss of the season.
The Saints return to the ice on Sunday afternoon for their final game of a near week long Mainland trip as they face-off against the Langley Rivermen in a matinee at George Preston Arena. Puck drop is slated for 3:30 PM MST and available on the Saints Radio Network and streaming on FloHockey.
