PHOTO: Vicki Brown
The Spruce Grove Saints got the winning goal from Tre Peck as they knocked off the Prince George Spruce Kings by a 6-5 score in a shootout on Saturday night at Kopar Memorial Arena.
The opening period showed no rust for the Saints, who collected three goals in the first 20 minutes of action and began early with a strike from Kohyn Pipke, who buried the first goal of the preseason to give the Saints a 1-0 edge in the opening three minutes of action. The defender took the puck on the right wing and scooted down to the side of the net before lifting a shot over the glove side shoulder of Spruce Kings netminder Ben Polhill to give Spruce Grove the early edge at 2:23 of the 1st frame.
Acquired from the Okotoks Oilers in the summer, Spencer Rheaume made a solid first impression on the Saints and gave Spruce Grove a 2-0 lead with a terrific display of patience, outwaiting a defender in the right circle before getting to the hash mark and wiring a shot past the glove side of Polhill for the 2-0 lead at the 15:42 mark of the 1st period.
Prince George cut the deficit in half with Andrew Artenosi throwing a seeing eye shot from the left point to get past Ryan De Kok in the Saints net and make the game 2-1 before Karim Kazhibekov renewed the two-goal advantage for the visitors with just two seconds remaining in the period. Kazhibekov made his way to the left circle and ripped a shot that hit the blocker side post and found its way into the net as the Saints carried a 3-1 lead into the dressing room after a period.
That late goal seemed to have an effect for the Spruce Kings, who scored three times in the 2nd period to gain the lead for the first time in the contest and dominated play with a 21-9 edge in shots on goal. After Ryan Wachtel got the game within a goal, he helped the Spruce Kings to tie the festivities with his second goal of the period on a shot from the slot that bounced off a body and found an opening on the blocker side of De Kok.
In 4-on-4 action, Prince George took their first lead of the game on a similar play that saw the puck bounce to the high slot and Michael Denney throwing a shot through traffic past the glove side of De Kok with under three minutes remaining in the frame to make it a 4-3 Spruce Kings lead into the 3rd period.
The Saints made a strong push in the 3rd period to get back into the game and started on a good rush from Gleb Akimov, who passed to Alexy Lachaine in the slot before he fed Brady Witkin in the right face-off circle to push the game to a 4-4 tie just under 10 minutes into the final regulation period.
Carson Lloyd put the Saints back ahead again with a shot off the rush as he blazed down the right wing side and drilled a shot underneath the blocker of Ryder Green, who finished the game in goal for the Spruce Kings to give the Saints their first lead since the opening period and give Spruce Grove a 6-5 advantage.
Late in the game, the Spruce Kings pulled their goaltender while on a power play and converted on the 6-on-4 attack on a scramble at the front of the net as Michael Denney pushed the puck to the front of the goal as it found a way to trickle past De Kok into the back of the net and force overtime at 5-5.
Overtime solved nothing in the way of goals being scored but a pair of great saves were made with De Kok turning aside a point blank shot in the slot from Denney, denying his hat trick bid to keep the game alive before Ryder Green made a terrific save on a 2-on-1 opportunity that James Richards fed Lloyd for a chance that the goaltender snuffed out to push the game to a shootout.
De Kok stood tall in the Saints net, turning aside each of the three shooters he faced while Tre Peck buried the winning goal, walking down the right wing and slipping a shot underneath the blocker side of Green to give the Saints a 6-5 victory after 70 minutes of play and six shooters.
The Saints are back in action for another preseason tilt in Prince George against the Spruce Kings on Sunday afternoon for a 3:00 PM MST start time. The game will be streamed online on FloHockey as well as broadcasted live on the Saints Radio Network.
