PHOTO: Garrett James
A pair of former Saints made an immediate mark against their former team while the offense could not register enough as Spruce Grove dropped their first ever meeting against the Cowichan Valley Capitals by a 5-2 score on Wednesday night at the BCHL Showcase in Chilliwack.
Ryan Harvey and Adam Lang, the former Saints who now don Capital colours, made their impact felt in the early going with Harvey registering the game’s opening goal just 27 seconds into action on the first shot of the contest, sending a right point shot through traffic and past the glove side of Saints netminder Ryan De Kok for the early advantage before Lang rushed down the right wing and snapped a shot past the blocker side of the Saints goaltender in the opening 10 minutes to push the Capitals to a two-goal lead.
Kole Keen gave Cowichan a 3-0 edge with a power play goal, redirecting a Carter Dekay point shot past the right shoulder of De Kok before the Saints started to get their feet moving and generate time in the offensive zone, due in large part to a power play of their own that had a disallowed goal go against them but shortly following that, they were able to get on the scoresheet on a play at the front of the net.
Tre Peck took a Max Holland pass in the right face-off circle and shot off the right pad of Rhett Stoesser in the Cowichan net before the rebound came loose for Alexy Lachaine at the top of the crease and the second-year Saint smacked home his second goal of the season to give Spruce Grove some life and cut the deficit to 3-1.
Cowichan took their three-goal lead back again in the early part of the 2nd period with Junsu Kwak snapping a shot over the shoulders of De Kok from the right face-off circle to give the Capitals a 4-1 lead heading into the 3rd period of play.
Taite Donkin added to the Cowichan lead to make it a 5-1 game eight minutes into the game before Tre Peck made the score 5-2 with his second goal in as many games as he deked around the goaltender inside the left face-off circle and got tangled up into the empty net as the puck slid across the goal line for his 2nd goal of the season and making the final score 5-2 in favour of Cowichan Valley.
Ryan De Kok turned aside 35 of the 40 shots in his 3rd loss of the season while Rhett Stoesser made saves on18 of the 20 shots thrown his way in his 5th win of the season.
The Saints finish off their BCHL Showcase schedule on Thursday night as they take on the Chilliwack Chiefs at the Abbotsford Centre. Puck drop is slated for 8:00 PM MST with the game broadcasted live on the Saints Radio Network and streamed online on FloHockey.
